ABSTRACT
On June 30, 1899, a Treasury Minute informed the Royal Niger Company of the intention of her Majesty’s Government to revoke their charter. At the end of 1899 Sir Frederick Lugard proceeded to Africa to take over the Niger Company’s territories in the name of Great Britain. On January 1, 1900, Crown Colony Administration was established in the Niger Company’s territories, following its similar establishment in the Delta, which had taken place some years previously. * In February 1902 the Government condescended for the first time—in the face of public pressure—to publish a report by Sir Frederick Lugard, dated London, May 1, 1901. The report, which is very interesting, but in many respects incomplete, notably as regards finance, only brings us down to March 31, 1901, so that, although we are now well on in the third year of Crown Colony Administration in Northern Nigeria, this single report is the measure of the confidence which the Government sees fit to repose in the British people, concerning the direct responsibilities they have acquired over some twenty-five million natives of Africa.
