Northern Nigeria

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 863607721

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-45464

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Lugard, Frederick John Dealtry http://d-nb.info/gnd/117667412

Title:: Northern Nigeria

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Maj. Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1907

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (65 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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24 COLONIAL REPORTS—MISCELLANEOUS. brought to a further stage of completion, the question of the organisation of the tax on the large cities and of the great and small traders resident in them can be dealt with, and, as I have said, this would possibly enable the Administration to abolish the caravan tolls and to substitute an individual tax upon the traders in proportion to their wealth, and equivalent to the incidence upon the rural population. The reason that this part of the scheme of direct taxation lags behind the taxation of the rural districts, consists in the fact that under the pre-existing native administration there was no such organisation in the cities as obtained in the agricultural districts. Nor is the cause far to seek. The basis of the taxation, as I have explained, was a tithe on grain, and an arbitrary cess upon pagan vassals. Neither was applicable to a city, and, moreover, the rulers desired to remain popular with the people of their capital city, who were regarded as their immediate ¡protégés. As the principal merchants grew in wealth, however, they became a mark for taxation, and the more lucrative trades—butchers, market brokers, and corn sellers. &c.—were accordingly taxed, while owners of dye pits, cloth weavers, smiths, and other trades were, as I have said, liable universally to a special tax. I do not here purpose to deal with the details of pre-existing taxation, which is a very large subject, and has been briefly outlined in my Annual Report for 1904, and examined in full detail in a Memorandum issued to Residents (No. 5). I am at present only concerned to show that the tax upon native traders resident in a city is part of the question of urban taxation under the General Tax, and I have elsewhere out lined a scheme of dividing the city into wards, each under a “ Maiungwa ” or Ward Chief, who will keep a list of all the residents in his quarter and collect their tax. 24. (b.) Native Breweries.—This tax was imposed partly for revenue purposes upon a lucrative trade, partly in order to check the manufacture and sale of native liquor. It was withdrawn for the following reasons. In Mohammedan dis tricts, the issue of a licence to manufacture intoxicants gave a legal sanction to that trade which is opposed to the Koranic Law. I considered it, therefore, more politic to withdraw this legal sanction, and to induce Mohammedan rulers to use their influence in checking the manufacture altogether, as an act in opposition to the fundamental native law and custom. So far as the manufacture remained, the brewers would be taxed under the General Tax, like any other member of the community, in proportion to their wealth. In Pagan districts, the manufacture of “ peto ” and other forms of liquor obtains In every household. Its commonest form is a thick partly- fermented kind of gruel which is, in fact, a form of food. In such circumstances taxation was obviously impossible, and would cause great discontent, and endless petty punishments for infringement of the law. The tax was, however, retained

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