Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of Sierra Leone.

Date:
[1934]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of Sierra Leone. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/56 (page 10)
    The Courts of the Paramount Chiefs are dealt with in Chapter XIII. Functions of Political Officers.—The functions of a Political Officer are three-fold in nature : administrative, judicial, and depart¬ mental ; but his departmental duties are so wedded to those that are purely administrative that it will be convenient to consider those duties together and separately from those of a judicial nature. In his administrative capacity the District Commissioner (and, a fortiori, the Provincial Commissioner) is the representative of the Colonial Government in that portion of the Protectorate committed to his administrative charge. He is the guide, philosopher, and friend to the Paramount Chiefs, the Tribal Authority and the people. He is at once the support of the recognized native authority, the upholder of its prestige, and the protector of the poor against oppres¬ sion by their rulers. He is the mouthpiece of the Government, and the interpreter and demonstrator of its policy. A District Commissioner’s departmental duties in reality form a part of his administrative duties. He is responsible for the col¬ lection of Government revenue in his District, by (a) house tax, and (b) the issue of licences for stores, hawkers, vendors of spirit, fire-arms, etc. He is the propagandist officer who is the coadjutor to the technical officers of the Agricultural and Forestry Departments; he supervises sanitation on behalf of the Health Department; he oversees the general conduct of the post offices and agencies; he keeps a wary eye on the Customs frontiers and seaboards; he con¬ trols the management of the gaols ; he advises the Education Depart¬ ment and assists in its propaganda; he supervises the laying out and construction of second-class roads, and the erection of native build¬ ings required for official purposes ; he facilitates the progress through his District of any officers whose duties require them to travel through it; in short, he has ancillary duties to perform on behalf of practically every Government Department in the Colony. The judicial duties and powers of a Political Officer are fully dealt with under Chapter XIII, to which reference is invited. III.—POPULATION. Colony.—The total population of the Colony according to the census of 1931 is 96,422, the racial distributions being as follows :— Race. Males. Females. Total. Percentage of Total African native tribes 36,914 24,869 61,783 Population. 64-08 African non-natives—Sierra Leo- ncans ••• ••• ••• ••• 14,438 18,408 32,846 34-06 Other African non-natives ... 583 346 929 0-96 Asiatics 309 135 444 0-46 Europeans 308 112 420 0-44 Totals . 52,552 43,870 96,422 100-00