NIGERIA 



It is now some three years since the immense cattle reserves 

 existing in Nigeria began to be discovered and appreciated. 

 This appreciation first came from a man who travelled two and 

 a half years in the cattle regions of Nigeria and a short way over 

 the borders into French, and what were previously German, 

 colonies. This was Mr. Speed, a man of wide experience, who 

 not only carefully collected data from interviews with resi- 

 dents, district officials, and the more important chiefs, but also 

 put his observations to the test in a practical way. He found 

 that there were not less than five million head of cattle. Be- 

 sides Sir Frederick Lugard, the Governor-General, Mr. Speed 

 saw Mr. Bonar Law and Sir A. Steel-Maitland on this matter, 

 with a view to securing adequate reserves of land to allow for 

 collecting and fattening prior to railing to Lagos. This was 

 the first step necessary for capital to be put up to secure the 

 erection of refrigerators, etc. 



A^a result of his energies, arrangements were made between 

 tin- Xigerian Company, Miller Brothers, and the African Asso- 

 ciation to finance the enterprise as occasion arose, and Mi*. 

 Speed went to Xigeria again to carry out the initial steps. 

 Unfortunately he died soon after reaching Nigeria. Nothing 

 has been done since the removal by death of this forceful per- 

 sonality, who from long experience in Australia and Rhodesia, 

 was a great judge of cattle, who had, moreover, accumulated a 

 vast deal of information regarding conditions in Nigeria, and 

 had actually experimented on a fair scale in fattening cattle 

 before railing them to Lagos. This man could, without doubt, 

 have guided into existence a vast enterprise, had he lived. An 

 able man whom Mr. Speed sent out, a Canadian, Mr. Claude P. 

 Evans, has spent over a year covering the ground previously 



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