4 
COLONIAL REPORTS—MISCELLANEOUS. 
fief from tlie Emir. Finally, the residuum which remained to 
the Principal Chief was squandered in the maintenance of a 
large hareem, and in the purchase of scents, embroidered robes, 
and such articles of luxury, and no part of the vast sums wrung 
from the peasantry was devoted to works of utility, or to any 
object for the benefit of the people who paid the taxes. 
2. The Government of Northern Nigeria was, by the circum 
stances of the case, placed in a difficult position in this matter. 
Prior to January, 1903, no really adequate steps for the 
amelioration of these abuses could be taken, for the Emirates 
of Sokoto and Kano still defied the Government, and the 
minor Emirs in the south (who. had nominally submitted 
to the control of the Administration) waited sullenly to see 
which of the two were to be the ultimate rulers of the 
Protectorate. They more than doubted the ability of the 
Government to conquer the Hausa States in the north, and 
until this was proved, even those who were inclined to 
accept British rule dared not too openly declare themselves. 
Meanwhile their power over their subjects was gone, their 
prestige had been broken, and their armies no longer existed 
for the enforcement of their arbitrary demands. The peasantry 
refused to pay their taxes, and every month which passed 
was injurious to the utimate settlement of the country, in 
that it appeared to prove to the peasantry that no power now 
existed which could maintain order, and enforce just and recog 
nised obligations and taxes. The inclusion of the Northern 
Hausa 'States under British control became, therefore, a most 
imperative necessity, for if it were deferred the remainder of 
the country would have lapsed into a state of defiance of all 
recognised authority, from which its reclamation would have 
been a task of very great difficulty. In 1902 Bornu and Yola 
were brought under control, and early in 1903 Sokoto, Kano, and 
Zaria submitted. At the end of 1903 (on my return from leave) 
a scheme was tentatively begun, and the revenue realised in 
the financial year 1903-04 was £8,255. In June, 1904, the 
first Land Revenue Proclamation gave legal effect to a system 
under which the Government would share in the taxes, and this 
was superseded early in 1900 by a more elaborate proclamation, 
under the title of the “ Native Revenue Proclamation,” and 
based upon fuller knowledge of the conditions. In my covering 
despatch to the Secretary of State I thus described the object of 
the new ordinance :— “The essential difference between this 
proclamation and the one it supersedes, is that the former pro 
clamation was limited to land and produce (including livestock), 
whereas this includes all forms of taxation known to the 
country, and makes any taxation not authorised by it illegal 
and punishable. While the former proclamation was only a 
tentative one, with the object of securing to the revenue a 
certain proportion of the taxes on land and produce levied by 
the native chiefs, and did not in any way touch the nature of