REPORTS
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1955.tb00083.x |
| Published date | 01 January 1955 |
| Date | 01 January 1955 |
42
JOURNAL
OF AFRICAN ADMINISTRATION
MARY SMITH. Baba Karo.
Faber
and Faber, 1954;
25s.;
pp. 300.
This is the autobiography of an African woman of the Moslem Hausa as
related by her to Mrs. Smith, the wife of an English anthropologist. The book
descibes the life of a village woman of Northern Nigeria from childhood days,
before the arrival of
the
British, until her death a few years ago. The descrip-
tion of interstate warfare, slave raiding and slave conditions and of
the
more
intimate aspects of Hausa village life and sociology as seen through awoman's
eyes will be appreciated both by anthropologists and the general reader.
The Clerk of the Council and his Department. A Manual of Administration.
(Published by the Society of Clerks of Urban District Councils
:-Apply
to
Mr. A.
Hatt,
Clerk, Billericay Urban District Council, 98 High Street,
Billericay).
Some years ago
the
Society of Clerks of Urban District Councils appointed
acommittee to compile an account of the functions and administrative methods
of the clerk of adistrict council
and
his department. This committee has
finished its work,
and
published this record of the working of such an
office.
It
is at
the
same time afactual statement of
what
the
clerk and his assistants
have to do,
and
a most useful guide to the best methods of carrying out their
countless duties.
The book is intended primarily for the use of those who are themselves
engaged in local
administration-clerks
of local authorities, their deputies, and
senior members of their staffs.
It
cannot be pretended
that
it will have a
wide appeal to
the
lay public, although there is much in it to interest students
of public administration or of
the
practical working of local government in
England.
It
is too detailed for the ordinary general reader,
but
will have for
that
reason a particular value for those who are actually engaged upon work
of the type described. Among these are those Colonial administrators who
are liable to find themselves suddenly called upon to institute in their territories
systems of local government based upon
that
of this country. Here they will
find a detailed yet lucid description of the actual processes by which the business
of local councils is conducted in England. Here are set
out
all the details of
many matters which cannot be found either in the usual textbooks or in the
Statutes of the
Realm;
the daily routine of an office, the procedure for elections,
how to prepareagendas
and
minutesof committee meetings, and much else besides.
The editorial committee, composed of ten clerks of urban district councils,
and many anonymous contributors, have devoted painstaking labour to the
production of this book, and the result is a volume which contains much
practical wisdom based on their cumulative experience,
and
much valuable
information. B. K.-L.
MARGARET TROWELL. Classical African Sculpture. Faber and Faber,
1954;
2s.;
pp. 151.
In this book Mrs. Trowell discusses the relationship between the different
forms of various African carvings
and
the social
pattern
in which they were
conceived. The book includes 48 pages of illustrations.
REPORTS
Native Administration in the British African Territories, by Lord Hailey. Index
to
Parts
I-IV;
H.M.S.O., London, 1954; Is.
6d.;
pp. 30.
The first four
parts
of this survey were published in 195P.
at
a time when it
l].A.A.,
Volume
III,
No.2,
April 1951.
To continue reading
Request your trial