Discussion on the foregoing three Papers

Mr W. R. W. Ferguson, who introduced Mr Bulbin's Paper, emphasized that the most serious problem in Nigeria was the acute shortage of water engineers ; of an establishment of forty-one water engineers, including the temporary engineers on the Colonial Development scheme, only six were on the strength. That had led to water-supply construction being passed on to the provincial engineers, who were already under-staffed and were, at present, expected to do far more work than they could reasonably undertake. That, in its turn, had considerably slowed down construction and had resulted in higher costs.

Shortage of plant and materials was not, of course, confined to the tropics, but it was emphasized there by the greater distance from the country of supply, which in most cases was Great Britain, and also by the poor clearing and railway facilities in Nigeria, caused largely by the ports and railways also being short of staff.