CROWN PROPERTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 16, 20 January 1933, Page 7

CROWN PROPERTY.

Position of Native Lands in Kenya. . DISCOVERY OF GOLD. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 19.' The Colonial Office has issued a statement dealing with the position of native lands following upon the recent discovery of gold in Kenya. This states that in East Africa minerals are the property, not of the occupiers of the land, whether European or native, but of the Crown. Large areas, totalling nearly 31,000,000 acres, have been set aside for the native population but the creation of these native reserves has in no way affected the Crown's ownership of minerals in or under the soil.

An ordinance passed in 1930 provided, with the advice and consent of the Central Native Lands Trust Board, that the Government could exclude from native reserves land required for such purposes as railways, aerodromes, townships, waterworks and the development of mineral resources of a colony. Where any such exclusion was made an equivalent area of land was to be added to the reserve. "The discovery of gold is. of the greatest importance to Kenya," says the statement. "The local Government has given most careful consideration to the policy to be followed in developing a potential goldfield and every care has been taken to safeguard the interests of individuals and the tribes as a whole in the future. "The surface actually required for reef mining in Kenya is a matter of acres only and the total amount of land likely to be excluded from reserves is relatively very small. Moreover the exclusion is only for the duration of the lease. The Governor does not contemplate any difficulty in providing individual dispossessed natives with other land. Compensation also will be paid to the local native funds."