756 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 



be greatly enhanced if the reports of each commission were published in a 

 succinct and easily accessible form. Such reports would naturally contain a 

 record of the actual frontier as finally ratified, and also a technical account of the 

 survey methods employed. They would thus be of permanent use both to the 

 official or officer on the spot for the easy settlement of any disputes that may 

 arise, and to the chief of any future boundary commission as an aid to the 

 selection of the methods of survey most suitable to the particular country with 

 which he is concerned. 



Up to three years ago many of the African protectorates were under the 

 tutelage of the Foreign Office, while the older colonies were under the Colonial 

 Office. The reports of Boundary Commissions are therefore scattered through 

 official documents in the two offices, and are drawn up upon no uniform model. 

 Now that the superintendence of all these territories has been handed over to the 

 Colonial Office, and that body has set itself such an excellent example in the 

 appointment of the Colonial Survey Committee and the publication of its reports, 

 it is greatly to be hoped that they will follow up th good work and systematise 

 and publish all these Boundary Commission reports. If a model for such a publi- 

 cation is desired, 1 may refer to the account of the demarcation of the Turko- 

 Egyptian frontier between Rabah on the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Akaba, 

 lately issued by the Egyptian survey. 



The account which I have endeavoured to give you, short and imperfect as it 

 is, of the present state of the mapping of British Africa will have shown you 

 clearly that there is a large amount of excellent work now in course of execution, 

 and that there has been, especially during the last few years, very considerable 

 progress made towards co-ordinating this work and towards maintaining certain 

 fixed standards of accuracy, rapiditj^, and economy. 



It will naturally occur to you to inquire whether this co-ordination could not 

 advantageously be pressed a step further, and whether all the isolated survey 

 departments, now working in the various colonies and protectorates, could not be 

 amalgamated under one executive head ; whether, in fact, a Survey Department 

 of Africa, precisely analagous to the Survey Department of India, could not be 

 formed. The advantages of such a step are obvious, but must not be allowed to 

 blind us to the difficulties. AVe have, in the first place, the objection to be met 

 that the South African colonies would, under present circumstances, almost 

 certainly refuse to join in any general scheme, and would not consent to any 

 arrangement whereby money raised in one colony would be spent outside its own 

 geographical limits. If however we leave South Africa out of the question, the 

 financial difficulty tends to disappear. Both our East and West Afi-ican posses- 

 sions are, in general, not yet in a position to maintain themselves, and are still, 

 and will bo for some time to come, partially supported by grants from the 

 Imperial Treasury. To divert a portion of these grants to pay for the main- 

 tenance of a survey department would only be a matter of account and could be 

 adjusted so as to cause no hardship to any one colony. There remains the 

 geographical difficultj"^ of space. The fact that the heads of the department would 

 have to keep in close personal touch with countries differing entirely in character, 

 and perhaps three months' journey from each other, does not appear to off'er 

 any insuperable objections, and I cannot avoid expressing the hope that it may be 

 found possible at a no very remote date to take some steps in the direction of a 

 consummation which appears so desirable. 



In giving my evidence before the Royal Commission on the War in South 

 Africa, presided over by Lord Elgin, I outlined the general features of a scheme 

 rmder which the Imperial Government would undertake the topographical map- 

 ping of all our oversea possessions, apart from self-governing colonies. As on 

 this occasion I was considering the whole question more exclusively from the 

 military side, no reference was then made to the question of cadastral maps, and 

 it was tacitly assumed that these would fall to be constructed by the land office 

 or a land survey department belonging to each separate colony. On the present 

 occasion we are not restiicted to the military point of view, but are permitted a 

 wider outlook. Our task is to consider the map in all its aspects, both as regards 



