HC Deb 25 February 1953 vol 511 c2077
42. Sir Edward Keeling

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what percentage of the revenue of the Gold Coast was spent on the Northern Territories in 1949 and in 1952.

Mr. Lyttelton

As no separate accounts of ordinary Government expenditure on the various regions of the Gold Coast are kept, the figures required are not available and could not be produced without a great deal of trouble.

But separate development accounts kept since 1952 show that development expenditure in the Northern Territories from April to September, 1952, was some 13 per cent. of the whole.

Sir E. Keeling

Will my right hon. Friend agree that in the past the Northern Territories have not had quite their fair share? Can he say whether the Nkrumah Government are trying to redress the balance?

Mr. Lyttelton

The figure of 13 per cent. from the development fund must be read against the background that there is no mineral development in the Northern Territories, which have chiefly an agricultural life.