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longer imposes any burden' (Woodman 1976: 163). Their rights have
become wellnigh absolute as they are no longer contingent on the fulfilment
of military (and other) serviceswhich,insofar as thesepersist,~are largely
nominal and not often exacted' (Ibidem: 163).
It should not be assumed, however, that the contemporaries, more
specifically the British colonial civil servants, who were on the scene, were
really aware of what was happening to chiefly rule, the trimmings of which
continued to be exhibited so ostentatiously that it was difficult to doubt the
institution's vitality. Nevertheless, it is difficult to understand how unaware
they were. For example, when in 1930 the then Governor ofthe Gold Coast,
Sir Ransford Slater, undertook to introduce a form of 'indirect rule' along
Lugardian lines, he decided that the Native Authorities to be created should
enjoy some measure of financial independence which he proposed to
achieve by commuting local services and tributes into taxes. According to
Robert Stone who has studied this episode closely, 'it was soon discovered
that no such services or tributes in fact existed' (1971: 7 -8). Stone illustrates
how this bitter truth was brought home to the Colonial Administration by
quoting the D.C. Cape Coast who reported in June 1931 that 'in their
present stage of development the subjects either don't owe or in any case
would refuse to give any services to the Head Chief's Stool. So far I have
not found any Stool which can definitely point to any recognised service
which each subject owes to it and which would be capable of commutation
to a money payment however small'; to which the Acting Commissioner
of the Central Province added: 'I am informed that this is the case
everywhere' (Ibidem: 8).
If the discovery of the penurious state in which native authority
had to sustain itself came as a shock to the Colonial Administration, this
was not only due to a deliberate lack of understanding or to the very short
memory which is manifest in such bureaucracies. In fact, in his
remonstrances against the colonial government during 1865-66 John
Aggery, the Mfantse King of Cape Coast, specifically complained 'that the
Government received customs and other revenues, while none went to him'
(Kimble 1963: 214). But then neither the Governor of the Gold Coast forts
(at Cape Coast) nor the Governor -in-Chief ofthe West African Settlements
(in Sierra Leone) had taken Aggery seriously on this or any other occasion.
Again, it should have registered with the Colonial Government when in
1871, the Fanti Confederation, not able to count on contributions from the
chiefs, had to raise its own revenue by levying dues on the trade passing
through its territory. This measure h ad been painful enough to be remem-
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