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SIR CHARLES BBUCE^ G.C.M.G._, ON 



such inquiries and investigations as are of a special scientific 

 and technical character connected with agricultural or mineral 

 development. Mineral surveys, under the supervision of the 

 Director, and conducted by surveyors selected by liiin, are in 

 progress in Ceylon, Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, and 

 Nyassaland, and preliminary arrangements of a similar nature 

 have been made in connection with British East Africa, and 

 with the Anglo-Congolese Boundary Commission in Uganda. 

 All minerals found w^hich are likely to be of commercial 

 importance are forwarded to the Imperial Institute where they 

 are examined and their composition and commercial value 

 ascertained. 



Associated with tlie principal departments of the Institute is 

 a department of tropical service training for candidates selected 

 by the Colonial Office for administrative appointments in East 

 and West Africa. Courses of instruction, including accounting, 

 law, tropical hygiene, and a wide range of subjects connected 

 with tropical cultivation and tropical products are arranged 

 for. 



Transport. 



The Eoyal Commission sent to the West Indies in 1897 

 found that facilities of transport were a necessary corollary to the 

 establishment of a Department of Economic Botany, and on 

 their recommendation services subsidised by the Imperial 

 Government were established to carry on regular inter-insular 

 communication and connect the West Indies with the United 

 Kingdom, Canada, and America. It is indeed obvious that the 

 harvest of fertile lands cultivated w^ith industry, however 

 indefatigable, by methods, however scientific and appropriate, 

 may be rendered worthless by cost of conveyance to market. 

 Naturally the question of adequate transport for our sea-borne 

 commerce is engaging the attention of all concerned in our 

 insular empire in the tropics, while at the same time the process 

 of adapting to our recently acquired continental possessions in 

 Africa the policy of liberal expenditure on facilities of communi- 

 cation which has from the first distinguished our rule in India, 

 is being carried out with energy. The policy which fifty years 

 ago advocated the abandonment of all commercial enterprise in 

 tropical Africa has been succeeded by a recognition of the 

 enormous possibilities involved in opening equatorial Africa to 

 commerce and civilisation. Kailway construction is a material 

 guarantee of the sincerity of the new policy. The initiative 

 was due to Lord Eipon, who ordered the preliminary surveys. 



