In Britain’s West African colony of Nigeria, where men buy their wives and thereafter own them, the price scale got out of hand after World War II when soldiers came home with the Crown’s mustering-out pay in their pockets. Soon they had to pay as much as $600 for an educated girl, $450 for an illiterate. Since this was far beyond the means of the average young tribesman, the Nigerians asked their British rulers to impose price controls on wives. The British stiffly refused. Last week a committee appointed by the Eastern Nigerian government to bring some relief to Nigerian males recommended: 1) a ceiling of $84 per wife, with installment payments permitted; 2) only one to a customer.