Table Of Content,
. . . . „
♦
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COLONIAL OFFICE
REPORT ON THE
GOLD COA
FOR THE YEAR
1 OC/I
Contents
PART I General Review ...... 3
PART II Chapter 1 Population ..... 22
Chapter 2 Occupations, Wages and Labour
Organisations .... 22
Chapter 3 Public Finance and Taxation 28
Chapter 4 Currency and Banking 37
Chapter 5 Commerce ..... 39
Chapter 6 Production:
Minerals .... 42
Manufacturing Industries . 45
Forestry ..... 47
Fisheries .... 50
Animal Products 52
Agricultural Production 54
Marketing Organisations . 59
Agricultural Development. 60
Produce Marketing Co-operatives 61
Land Tenure .... 62
Chapter 7 Social Services:
Education .... 64
Public Health .... 73
Housing and Town Planning 79
Social Welfare 83
Chapter 8 Legislation ..... 90
Chapter 9 Justice, Police and Prisons . 92
Chapter 10 Public Utilities and Public Works 101
[Contents continued overleaf
LONDON: HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE
1956
2 contents continued
PAGE
PART II Chapter 11 Communications 105
continued. Chapter 12 Information Services, Broadcasting,
Films and Press 115
Chapter 13 Military Forces . 123
Chapter 14 General 125
PART III Chapter 1 Geography and Climate 134
Chapter 2 History 137
Chapter 3 Administration . 145
Chapter 4 Weights and Measures 155
Chapter 5 Reading List 156
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I Government Revenue and Expenditure . 162
APPENDIX II Public Debt.171
APPENDIX III Expenditure on schemes financed under the
Colonial Development and Welfare Act 172
APPENDIX IV Local Government Finance . . .173
APPENDIX V Income and Company Tax . . .174
APPENDIX VI A. Industrial distribution of the Male
Population . . . . .179
B. Numbers of persons in Wage-Earning
employment . . . .180
C. Principal Categories of Wage-Earners
and Rates of Wages . . .181
APPENDIX VII Medical and Health Staff . . .183
APPENDIX VIII Ordinances enacted in 1954 . . .184
APPENDIX IX Cases disposed of by Courts in the Gold
Coast.185
- MAP .At end
WH1C»
Note: In some cases the figures for 1953 have been revised and do
not correspond with those given in the 1953 Report.
(y C Crown Copyright Reserved
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I
PART 1
General Review
In June the first general election based on universal adult suffrage
and the secret ballot was held in the Gold Coast. In the Northern
Territories, where great distances were involved and fewer control
staff were available, two days were required to complete polling.
Elsewhere, only one day was necessary. As a result of the election.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of the Convention Peoples’ Party
and Prime Minister in the former Government, was called upon by
the Governor to form a new Government. A list of Cabinet Ministers,
Ministerial Secretaries and members of the Legislative Assembly as
at the 31st of December, 1954, appears in Part III of this report, at
Chapter 3.
The Gold Coast (Constitution) Order in Council, 1954, effected
many changes in the structure of Government. There are no longer
three ex-officio expatriate Cabinet Ministers, nor six special members
for commerce and the mines. There is now no Ministry of Justice,
and the Attorney-General’s Office has been merged into the new
Ministry of the Interior. The Ministry of Defence and External Affairs
no longer exists but the subjects are handled, in the main, by the
Governor’s Office.
The post of Chief Secretary was also abolished. Sir Reginald
Saloway, formerly Chief Secretary and Minister of Defence and Ex¬
ternal Affairs, and Mr. E. Norton Jones, formerly Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Defence and External Affairs, retired from
the service. Sir Patrick Branigan, the late Minister of Justice, also
retired. Mr. G. Hadow was appointed Deputy Governor and Mr.
K. Tours, the former Minister of Finance, was appointed to the
new post of Economic Adviser.
Mr. T. M. K. Mercer, formerly Chairman of the Gold Coast Cocoa
Marketing Board, was appointed the first African Gold Coast
Commissioner in London ; later in the year, Mr. T. Hutton Mills,
formerly Minister of Health, joined him as his Deputy.
At the Commemoration Service held at the War Memorial on the
9th November, a party of African Officer Cadets from the Command
Training School were in attendance. Their smart bearing was con¬
spicuous. During December, a party of Ministers from other West
African territories, who were in the Gold Coast attending the Army
Advisory Council of West Africa, witnessed an impressive fire-power
display staged at the Command Training School.
A great number of new buildings are being erected: this develop¬
ment is by no means confined to the large towns. New District and
Local Council offices are much in evidence as one drives through
3
83279 A 2
4 GOLD COAST
the rural areas. A fine new hall for the Gold Coast Legion is nearing
completion in Accra.
In the realm of sport, the Gold Coast sent a team to compete in
the Empire Games at Vancouver ; although only one bronze medal
was earned, the team gained valuable experience. There is an upsurge
of enthusiasm for sport as a whole throughout the country. New
football, hockey, cricket and athletic clubs are being formed ; and
particular enthusiasm is shown for boxing, no doubt as a result of
the success of Gold Coast boxers in the United Kingdom.
The mass literacy campaign has been attended with considerable
success; and in its train can be seen a desire by the people of the
rural areas to know more of what is taking place, not only in the
Gold Coast, but also in the outside world. This is exemplified in the
many hundreds of requests from remote villages for the installation
of a wireless rediffusion service. Development, a higher standard of
living and the provision of amenities are major topics of conversa¬
tion. Government has initiated a drive to provide two basic
necessities, good communications and supplies of pure drinking water.
There is a universal demand for better roads, more feeder roads,
piped water supplies, electricity and radio-rediffusion stations. Many
local councils are enthusiastic to improve amenities by means of
self-help and community labour. This is indeed a great step forward
in the encouragement of civic pride.
In the 1953 report, mention was made of an unfortunate distur¬
bance which occured at Elmina, in which a Police Superintendent
and a constable were killed. For their gallantry in this affair. Her
Majesty the Queen graciously approved the award of the George
Medal to Sergeant Dama Dagarti and Sergeant Allasan Busanga
of the Gold Coast Police and to Mr. Lawrence Silvester Dick, a
dresser of the Gold Coast Medical Department.
The World Veterans’ Federation honoured Doctor Kwame
Nknumah, the Prime Minister, by awarding him the Federation’s
Peace Prize for 1954. In presenting the award in absentia, the W.V.F.
paid a special tribute to the Prime Minister for the peaceful co¬
operation which existed between himself and the British Administra¬
tion ; and especially for the example which he has given to the
world of how self-government may be peacefully achieved.
Political
The year 1954 was a most important landmark in the political
and constitutional development of the Gold Coast. The proposals
for further constitutional reform which had been submitted to Her
Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom were, with very slight
amendment, approved and embodied in the Gold Coast (Constitution)
Order in Council, 1954. The despatches on the Gold Coast’s proposals
for Constitutional reform, exchanged between the Secretary of State
for the Colonies and His Excellency the Governor, are given in
Colonial No. 302 published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office in
1954.
5
GENERAL REVIEW
The provisions of the Order in Council, other than Part II and
sections 56, 63 and 70, came into operation on the 5th May, 1954.
Part II and section 70 came into operation on the 18th June, 1954.
The first meeting of the Legislative Assembly under the new con¬
stitution was held on Tuesday the 27th July, 1954. On that day.
Sir Emmanuel Quist was re-elected as Speaker. The formal opening
of the Assembly by His Excellency the Governor was held on Thurs¬
day-the 29th July. His Excellency then conveyed to the Assembly
messages from Her Majesty the Queen and the Rt. Hon. Oliver
Lyttelton (now Lord Chandos), then Secretary of State for the
Colonies.
In the management of its internal affairs, the Gold Coast is now,
for all practical purposes, self-governing. The Cabinet appointed
under Part II of the Order in Council was as follows: —
The Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah—Prime Minister.
The Hon. Kojo Botsio—Minister of State.
The Hon. K. A. Gbedemah—Minister of Finance.
The Hon. A. Casely-Hayford—Minister of the Interior.
The Hon. E. O. Asafu-Adjaye—Minister of Local Government.
The Hon. J. H. Allassani—Minister of Education.
The Hon. A. E. A. Ofori Atta—Minister of Communications.
The Hon. Ako Adjei—Minister of Trade and Labour.
The Hon. J. E. Jantuah—Minister of Agriculture.
The Hon. N. A. Welbeck—Minister of Works.
The Hon. Imoru Igala—Minister of Health.
In the latter part of the year, the Fourth Committee of the United
Nations Organisation directed the Trusteeship Council to consider
how the wishes of the people of Togoland under United Kingdom
Administration regarding their future should be ascertained. It was
envisaged, in pursuance of this, that a special visiting Mission would
be sent to the Trust Territory sometime during 1955.
Towards the end of the year, a movement arose in Ashanti, the
National Liberation Movement, whose object is to work for a
federal form of Government for the Gold Coast. The National
Liberation Movement and the Asanteman Council, which favours
the ideas of the Movement, sent petitions to Her Majesty the Queen
asking for the appointment of a Royal Commission to enquire into
their proposal for a Federal Constitution for the Gold Coast. The
Prime Minister subsequently invited the National Liberation Move¬
ment and the Asanteman Council to send representatives to meet
himself and his colleagues to discuss the problems of a federal system
of Government. Advantage was not taken of this invitation.
Registration for elections.—Registration of electors under the
Electoral Provisions Ordinance, 1953, started on the 25th January,
1954, and was completed by the 10th May. The Information Services
Department launched an extensive campaign to educate the general
public on the meed for, and the method of, registering as electors.
Registration was organised on a regional basis. All Registration
6
GOLD COAST
Officers were senior Government officials, for the most part Govern¬
ment Agents and Assistant Government Agents (some of whom were
in charge of more than one electoral district). Assistant Registration
Officers were recruited in large numbers from local authorities and
schools as well as from the Government Service. There is no doubt
that registration, particularly in the Eastern and Western Regions,
was hampered by the requirement of payment of rates. In some areas
no rate under the Local Government Ordinance had been imposed
during the previous year, and collection of the rate had not properly
started. In other areas, where Native Authorities had only recently
been replaced by Local Authorities under the Local Government
Ordinance, it was believed (wrongly) that payment of the previous
year’s tax to the old Native Authority was a sufficient qualification
for registration. In Accra, and also in one or two small rural areas,
no rate had been imposed and electors were allowed to register
rate-free: this aroused envy and resentment in rate-paying districts.
Another difficulty was that of explaining in simple and non-
controversial terms the provision that registration as an Assembly
elector was confined to British subjects and British protected persons,
with the exception of foreign nationals serving in the armed forces
or the Gold Coast Police. The difficulty was increased by the fact
that foreign nationals were able to register at the same time and
on the same Registers as Local Government electors if they had the
requisite qualifications. It is probable that in some areas foreign
nationals not eligible to be registered as Assembly electors were
in fact registered as such, and that in other areas foreign nationals
eligible to be registered as Local Government electors were wrongly
omitted from the Registers. On the whole registration proceeded
satisfactorily, and certainly without disturbance or major incident.
In all, 1,225,603 persons registered.
General Election.—The date fixed for the general election was
June 15th. This date was determined by political and constitutional
considerations, and fell in the middle of the rainy season. The day
was, however, fine throughout the country. It was originally intended
to hold the general election on one and the same day throughout the
Gold Coast. On closer examination of the administrative arrange¬
ments required in the Northern Territories, however, it was decided
that there should be two polling days in that Region. This decision
was dictated mainly by the fact that it would have been impossible
to recruit from within the Northern Territories sufficient staff to
man all the polling stations on one day. As in the case of the general
registration, the arrangements for the general election were organised
on a regional basis. All Returning Officers were senior Government
Officials. Assistant Returning Officers, Presiding Officers and Polling
Assistants were recruited mainly from local authorities, schools and
the Government Service, but large numbers of volunteers from the
general public were also accepted.
7
GENERAL REVIEW
The Information Services Department mounted a campaign to
educate the general public in the onew voting procedure and the
broad requirements of the law regarding election offences. This
campaign did not need to be either so extensive or so intensive as
in the 1951 campaign, since political parties and their organisations
were now well-established amd were able to take over much of the
task of informing the electorate of its rights and duties. All political
parties helped with the election arrangements, and were of consider¬
able assistance to Returning Officers.
Both polling days passed off without major incident of any kind,
and observers everywhere noted the patience and good humour of
the electorate. It is becoming traditional for the people of the Gold
Coast, while taking elections with the seriousness the occasion de¬
mands, to regard them as a family affair in which fierce argument
may be permitted but never to the point of breach of decorum. It
was noteworthy that in all electoral districts, municipal and rural,
voting began very early in the day, and the largest crowds gathered
in the morning. In the rural areas voting had dwindled to a trickle
by mid-day. Arrangements both for the counting of votes and for
the publication of results were more elaborate than in 1951. All
results were transmitted as they became available, by the quickest
possible means, to the Information Services Department’s conference
room at its Headquarters in Accra. Here there were special facili¬
ties for journalists, including a large wall-chart showing all 104 con¬
stituencies and the names and party affiliation (if any) of all candi¬
dates, and a battery of telephones. Floodlit “ score boards ” erected
on the old Polo Ground in Accra and on the Prince of Wales Park
in Kumasi, attracted large crowds (that in Accra not dispersing until
3.0 a.m. when the news of Dr. Nkrumah’s success became known).
The first result was declared shortly after 10.0 p.m. on Polling Day
(June 15th) and the last result at mid-day on June 18th. The follow¬
ing were the results of the Election:
Party Seats Votes Percentage of
total votes
1. Convention People’s Party . 71 391,817 55
2. Northern People’s Party 12 53,705 7
3. Togoland Congress 2 21,026 3
4. Ghana Congress Party . 1 32,168 5
5. Moslem Association Party . 1 21,172 3
6. Ghana Nationalist Party 3,579 1
—
7. Ghana Action Party 285 0
—
8. Anlo Youth Organisation . 1 7,375 1
9. Independents 16 175,593 25
104 706,720 100
(a) Total number of voters on Register .... 1,225,603
(b) Total number of votes cast ...... 706,720
(b) as percentage of (a) .. 58 %
8 ©OLD COAST
Economic
During 1954 Government examined its general economic policy
against the background of the need to maintain a reasonable degree
of internal stability in the face of the continued high level of world
prices of cocoa. While actual inflationary pressure in the economy
had eased, it was still considered necessary to make strenuous efforts
to keep the cost of living steady and to prevent a general rise in
costs which would not only lead to an increase in the capital costs
of development but also increase the burden of Government’s expen¬
diture, thereby prejudicing the successful accomplishment of further
development plans.
In its review the Government’s objective was to ensure that every
section of the community should enjoy a rising standard of living,
which could not be achieved if the cocoa farmer were to receive in
full the high earnings arising from world prices of cocoa ; the problem
was to determine the domestic cocoa price which would be in line
with the general level of wages and prices throughout the economy.
Experience in recent years has indicated that any sharp increase in
the guaranteed purchase price of cocoa has always been accom¬
panied by a rise in the prices of locally produced foodstuffs which
form the staple diet of the country as a whole; and the additional
purchasing power in the hands of cocoa farmers leads to increases
in the prices of imported goods until supply again comes into line.
In sharp contrast has been the period of steady prices and internal
stability which has prevailed during the years in which the domestic
cocoa price has been maintained at the same level. It has therefore
been Government’s policy to bring about the expansion of the
economy by concentrating on capital expenditure which generates
income over a much wider sector. The inflationary effects of a high
level of such capital expenditure are relatively slower in their reper¬
cussions on the general level of prices than in more developed coun¬
tries ; a large amount of capital expenditure is incurred on goods
imported from abroad, which are now in much easier supply, and
the generating power of the initial domestic expenditure is again
slower than in more developed economies.
Development expenditure has risen annually from £6 5 million
in 1951-52 to £15*6 million in 1953-54, and works completed and
in progress in 1954-55 will eventually cost £25’6 million. A relative
increase of this magnitude would normally be expected to lead to
a far higher degree of inflation in a developed economy, but experi¬
ence and study of this problem in the Gold Coast indicate that the
necessary impetus to expansion can be maintained by this means
without the risk of acute inflation during the present stage of the
country’s development.
The importance of long-term capital development cannot be over
emphasised. Cocoa continues to be the principal source of oversea
earnings, and any prolonged fall to a much lower level in the world
price would seriously jeopardize the development of the country.
Government has therefore considered it of paramount importance
