40 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



however, prefers a system of departmental training (East Africa 

 1937). Brigadier Winterbotham has suggested that African survey- 

 ors could be recruited through military channels, and has pointed 

 out that the King's African Rifles already train numbers of signal 

 boys; he considers that a similar education directed to surveying 

 would supply the right class of material. As an example of the 

 use of military training, in Northern Rhodesia the survey platoon 

 of the King's African Rifles was absorbed by the survey depart- 

 ment in 1932. The personnel was originally selected from natives 

 of a very low standard of education, but a limited number of 

 them, after two years' training in the drawing office, are now 

 producing work of a high standard. These proposals by Brigadier 

 Winterbotham were not, however, adopted by the governments 

 concerned. 



Against the view that African surveyors should be recruited on 

 military lines it may be urged that some background of general 

 education is desirable. Furthermore cadastral survey, which pro- 

 vides fixed and mechanical tasks, is probably the best immediate 

 apprenticeship for topography which, more than any other sur- 

 veying operations, calls for individual judgement. It appears that 

 the only satisfactory way of training Africans for survey work is to 

 obtain candidates of as good educational qualifications as possible 

 and give them a three or four years' technical course, which will 

 include both theory and practice, at a properly constituted school 

 or training institution. 



There seems to be a general demand for native auxiliary staflf in 

 all East Africa, except perhaps Kenya, where there is no use for 

 plane-tablers at present, because the topographical work is at a 

 standstill. In Kenya, moreover, there is no printing office for the 

 reproduction of maps (other than sun-printing by hand), so that 

 there is no demand for skilled labour in printing, and most of the 

 drawing is done by Indians. 



RESULTS 



GEODETIC TRIANGULATION 



As has been emphasized above, relatively little geodetic work 

 has been accomplished in Africa, compared with most other parts 



