[?]And On The Catch-As-Catch-Can Principle

Extraordinary Situation in the New Hebrides

An Article By Vernon Wheatley

INDER the New Hebrides Anglo- ) French Condominium Government, there is supposed to he Land Court whose chief purpose the issue of titles to land. A rge proportion of the NH land is ore or less alienated from native ntrol, hut very little of it as yet s been dealt with by the Land M The Australian Commonwealth wernment, for example, was )en at least 100,000 acres in the oup by the late Sir James Burns, years ago; but it still is awaiting le to most of the areas.

Very few of the French and rtish people in NH hold legal les to the land they occupy.

There are many very slow things the South Pacific; but probably vre is nothing slower there than ' ■ <^P^ra^ lon A. °L machinery wided by the Condominium for ? survey of lands and the grant- 7 • yearly all land claims now are \ed on incidents from 30 to 60 trs old. As time and the generans of men pass on, conditions nously are created which open ; w 7 a y t 0 dishonest practices. It °l What - 18 often called the Pandemonium the New Hebrides.

rjTHE New Hebrides Group is rich X in natural resources, but the islands are sadly under-worked. it would be difficult to introduce outside- capital into the Group for one very good reason. Land titles are both obscure and insecure.

At present, an effort is being made to legalise some titles, but this will take many years if it is Land Court’s intention to legalise the whole Group—as it should do. Let us examine a few plots of land I have in mind. x says an area is his because his father had it before him. He has no papers of any description. He just says it is his. Old man X, in all probability, bought the land off a native in years gone by, using a very simple method. He stood on a hill and pointed to four points and expressed a willingness .to own the land. The native quoted a price in cash and trade goods. Old man x paid up and £ ot the native to put his mark on the receipt. All well and good. Signed, sealed and delivered But the catch is this: In count less cases, the seller did not own the land. It belonged to another native - X ’ therefore, has only squatter’s rights, which are dubious in view of the fact that descendants

of the original owner may still be alive and might contest the squatter’s rights. Old man X is dead and can give no evidence.

Young X is alive and everybody knows him as they did his father, so it is reasonable to assume that he will get deeds, some day.

Y is French. He occupies some land leased from a French com mercial house. Recently, he bought it from the company, paying cash.

How did the company figure in this transaction? The position is in volved so I will simplify it as much as I can.

The original owner of this par ticular island was a half-caste Trini dadian or Jamaican negro . . . native mother and English father. He came to the New Hebrides many years ago and settled on a small island.

Whether he bought this land or merely squatted, I cannot say.

Judging by his mode of life, I should be inclined to say he was a Turk, for he more or less established a numerous family in a massive native-type house. Attending to his large domestic establishment it is probable his attention to other affairs wavered. He ran into debt.

Finally, his financial state became hopeless and the French company took over the island. The prolific homesteader and his retinue vanished and, in time, the French company “leased” the island to one of its clients, Y. Y worked the. place, produced copra and did ex ceptionally well out of the Yanks

and what they left behind. Y, be coming a minor sort of war-assets millionaire, “bought” the property from the French company—whose legal right to lease or sell might be questioned. A tangled mess; and what promises to complicate it further is that some female de scendants of the original settler, who have married into a financial family, show signs of claiming that

the French company and the pre-l sent occupier have no legal stand-1 ing.

LAND matters have been further] complicated in the New Hebrides by a strange set-up called thej Societe Francaise des Nouvellea Hebrides, whose chief activity seems to lie in the handling of claims to* land. What this Company is, nobody]

ems to know for certain. Some y it is 90% French Government; it its origin, constitution and pur >se are things definitely not avail ►le to the average inquirer.

SFNH (as it is commonly known these parts) has laid claim to the astline area around Santo, to a pth of 40 metres, and has pro limed it a Zone Maritime. For lat purpose? Some ex-American ildings are on this property and e leased to French nationals at t figures. British people, should ey try to acquire a lease of some this property, are gently eased t. fhere was only one person outside French nationality who was able persuade SFNH, and its friends d countrymen, to give lease over Dperty and a Quonset hut in the ne Maritime, and he was an out )ken Australian tradesman. He mned his projected lease before npleting the deal, and he was •prised to find that he could not either the English or the Aus lian flag on the property—only I French flag. He tossed the lease :k at them and became even more ;spoken before acquiring business imises elsewhere. >FNH does not restrict its activ is to Santo. It operates through the Group, The majority of the d it claims is without legal title 0 anybody’s “claim” might be as ►d as that of SFNH, It rarely has n squatter’s rights, since it does occupy or till the land. [any a quizzical eyebrow has been >ed over the operations of this at, and a common opinion among British community is: If it is d enough for the French, why organise a similar British com ly? After all, it is supposed to a Condominium. Of course, this merely academic argument, ut, it must be remembered, idon notoriously has been dif nt over matters like this. We st not tread on other people’s i. Meanwhile, SFNH goes rolling rily along.

IE most bare-faced land burglary occurred quite a few years ago. It was simple, and been repeated with minor ations throughout the Group, an Englishman, settled on some 1 and made his claim, legally, a the British side of the Con inium. B, a Frenchman, settled one side of him and claimed adjoining block of land, and ined official sanction. In course me, B claimed land on the other of A; and, later still, more land rear of A’s block, thus effec ly surrounding him and leav- A only sea access. This took s years; and A, by this time, quite a flourishing plantation, then intimated to A that Dassers would be dealt with, and t about it? A stood his ground; finally, he had to quit, in fear is life. B used to spend happy

hours shooting out A’s windows. A retired from the field of battle and left B the lot. a could get no support from his Governmental representatives. Another instance of the good old we- , must - n ° t - tread-on - other-people's toes P° llc y-

CIOME people are amazed that & there are no taxes in the New Hebrides. This is as it should be, since the Condominium Gov ernment provides no services, social or otherwise.

There are many hidden taxes— such as vehicle licences. The revenue

from these should be applied to the roads.

The roads in the New Hebrides are beyond comment! I have seen groups of natives haling out puddles in the roadway, using jam or meat tins as dippers, and then filling in the depressions with handfuls of coral and then tamping it down with their feet. Carefully watched by a negligent overseer, and an amused audience.

Road repairs in Santo are a barometer. If you see the roller and the grader chufiing up and down the road; if you see gangs of natives hurling coral about with careless abandon; if you see feverish activity in all directions —then you know a visiting dignitary is due very shortly.

There is also a produce tax, levied on copra—since this is the Group’s mostly biggest export.

In view of the dilapidated con dition of the Santo wharves, it seems that some of this money might be diverted to providing good berthing facilities.

All the wharves have been con lemned with the exception of Pier J. Pier 3, in spite of its saw-toothed sdges, in spite of the gaping hole in the decking where a five-ton truck fell through, remains open in spite of its rickety condition, for the very good reason that if they jondemn Pier 3, there will be no wharves left. Pier 3 is the last ipple in the bottom of the barrel.

Former Cook Islands Resident Commissioner William Tailby and Mrs. Tailby returned to New Zea land per Orcades and Monowai in March, after an extensive motor tour of Britain and the Continent.

They planned to remain in London

for the Coronation, but very bad winter weather finally drove them away. Mr. Tailby is now in much better health.

Mr. and Mrs. G. Leopard re turned to Rarotonga in April. Mr.

Leopard is manager there for Union SS Co. They had spent several months’ leave in New Zealand.

64 Years A Teacher

Rev. Brother Alnhonsus, MBE, was awarded the OBE in this year’s New Year Honours in acknowledgment of 64 years of teaching in the Brothers’ Schools in Fiji. Brother Alphonsus, now 88, re turned to Suva in March after a visit to Australia and New Zealand.