the whole territory which is under the British flag (with the exception of a portion of the Hinterland of Southern Nigeria) has now been brought under administrative control, while the newly-created gold industry on the Gold Coast, and the prospects of commerce generally, are very satisfactory.
The staple exports of the West African Colonies are rubber and oil seeds (especially palm-oil, shea, and ground nuts), while hides, cocoa, and many minor products are yearly increasing in importance. Efforts have recently been made to develop cotton as a new and lucrative staple, so as to supersede the American supply from within the Empire.
Exactly forty years ago, as we have seen, the total revenue of the West African Settlements was £80,400, and their total trade was only £1,183,000. The statistics of the last published year (1903) show a total aggregate revenue of £1,700,081, which is rapidly increasing, and a total volume of trade of £9,738,584. So great a trade, which, except for spirits, is chiefly British, is worthy of some encouragement from the British Exchequer, which in 1905 spends on the development of the latest addition to its possessions (Northern Nigeria) the same sum as it spent on the coast in 1865, when the trade was almost nil, and it may, I trust, look forward to its being an equally sound investment.
II.—Northern Nigeria.
It was due to the enterprise of Sir G. Goldie, founder of the Royal Niger Company, that the territories which form the Hinterland of Lagos and Southern Nigeria were acquired by England in spite of the eager efforts of France, and it is now some twenty years ago since he was able at the Berlin Conference of 1885 to announce that the British flag alone flew on the territories on both sides of the Niger up to Say, which is considerably north of the rapids. Complications with France in the west, and the loudly-expressed opposition
