§ MR. HUTTONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether, under the Contract of the 19th January with the Eastern Telegraph Company, it is intended that the British Settlements on the West Coast of Africa shall contribute any portion of the annual subsidy of £19,000 to be paid to that Company; and, if there is such intention, what proportion or sum is to be contributed by each of the five Settlements named in the Contract?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. OSBORNE MORGAN)I am informed that the West African Colonies are to contribute £5,000 a year to the subsidy in question, and the Colonial Office proposes that this contribution should be divided among the four Colonies Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gold Coast, and Lagos on the following scale roughly proportioned to their revenues:—Sierra Leone, £1,300; Gambia, £500; Gold Coast, £2,200; Lagos, £1,000. The fifth Settlement mentioned in the contract is the Niger territory; but there can be at present no question of its contributing towards the subsidy, as no system of government or revenue has yet been established there. The contribution of £5,000 from the four Colonies has been fixed irrespective of any sum which may hereafter be received on account of the Niger territory.