GOLD IN KENYA

Evening Star, Issue 21315, 20 January 1933, Page 9

GOLD IN KENYA

POSITION OF NATIVE LANDS t MINERALS PROPERTY OF CROWN (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. RUGBY, January 18. . The Colonial Office, in a statement, deals with the position of native lands following; the recent discovery of gold in Kenya, in East Africa. Minerals are the property not of the oecupiers < 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 such native reserves in no way affected the Crown’s ownership of minerals in or under the soil, and an ordinance passed in 1930 provided that with the advice and consent of the Central Native Lands Trust Board, the Government could exclude from the native reserve any _ land required for such purposes as railways, aerodromes, townships, waterworks, and the development. of the mineral resources _of the 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 Konya, and , the local Government has given most careful consideration to the policy that is to be followed in developing the potential goldfield. Every care has been taken to safeguard the interests of individuals and 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 bo excluded from the reserves is relatively very small. Moreover, the exclusion is only for the duration of the lease. The Governor does hot _ contemplate any difficulty in providing individual dispossessed natives with other land, and compensation will also be paid to local native funds.”