29. G The following are the figures of game killed during the years 1914-1918 :— Head. 1914 ... 3,580 1915 ... ... 1,017 1916 426 1917 545 1918 1,368 Returns in 1919 show a total of 1,371 head of game killed in 1919 by 130 officers, officials, residents and natives.

A number of modifications have been made in the game laws with a view to preservation of animals that are becoming scarce.

There have been one or two outbreaks of rinderpest during the period which have caused casualties among the game, but on the whole the condition and abundance of game remained satisfactory.

During the war there have been no shooting parties from outside the Soudan. In the present season 1919-20 big game hunters are beginning to return.

30. R With the spread of civilisation in the country it may be said that the grosser forms of slave trading have become extinct.

The more veiled methods whereby a certain amount of traffic is carried on between West Africa and the Hedjaz by means of the Mecca pilgrimage is infinitely more difficult to deal with, but the system by which all travellers from the west must be in possession of a pass from their country of origin showing the numbers of the party and relationship to one another, coujDled with the ornisation of the Slavery Police in Darfur on the western frontier, and on the Red Sea littoral and the Abyssinian frontier on the east, is undoubtedly a deterrent to those who might otherwise engage in this traffic.

The ordinary police force of the country deals with any cases that occur in the interior, bilt it would be almost impossible for them to carry out this special work of checking attempts to use the Soudan as a slave route between West Africa and Arabia.

31. Prisons. The average yearly number of admissions to prison during the five years of war was 615 males and seven females.

Prison workshops have done very well during the war. All clothing required by Government for police and convicts was made in these workshops.

32. Surveys. Topographical survey has been confined to the triangulation of Darfur province, which has proceeded satisfactorily, assisted by a number of sketches received from officers and officials stationed in the province.

The principal work in cadastral survey has been in connection with the area in the White Nile province which will be inundated when the dam at Gebel Aulia is constructed.

The maintenance of existing surveys continues, but European supervision has to a certain extent been lacking during the war.

33. L As regards town lands, the director of the Department has been gradually devolving the work of dealing with applications for allotment of lands on the local authorities. Land allotment in pracmcally all towns and stations is now dealt with in this way, the Lands Department exercising supervision and control.

The Lands Department has the work of the following Committees to deal with:— 1. The Gezira Development Commission. This committee deals with all questions arising out of the scheme for the cultivation of the Gezira by means of the Makwar barrage.

[3437 y—2] R 2 House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.