Conflict of Old
pp. 122-123 · Read in the full issue
And New In Ellice Islands
IN the eight inhabited islands of the Ellice Group, where popu lation density is about 200 per square mile, frequent disputes are occurring among the natives as to title or boundaries of land and gardens.
Primary cause of the disputes, writes Mr. Donald G. Kennedy in a recent issue of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, is the gradual transition from the ancient, or Kai tasi, system of land tenure to the system of individual ownership—an increasing necessity since the ad vent of European trade.
All land, he says, may be divided into three classes: (a) Kai-tasi — land held by family groups under the control of the senior male mem bers of the group; (b) Vaevae— lands held by individual owners; and (c) Fakangamua—communal, or common lands. The Kai-tasi system was ideal when all work was a communal undertaking and the only land used was an area suf ficient to produce the food require ments of the family. Individual ownership would have meant isola tion; hence there was no incentive for it.
No family or individual, however, had absolute control over any land.
They were, to some degree, tenants of the people of the island, who could (and still do) take over any land if its acquisition was considered necessary. This right has been exercised on some islands to obtain land for schools, churches and villages.
Common land (fakangamua) rare. The produce of the tre growing originally on the land owned by the state, but any pe son is free to plant trees there a] has sole rights to the produce such trees.
Inheritance of land, as with t
or transfer of land ties, is governed by numerous jstoms. Should a testator or trans ;ree ignore these customs, the old len of the island determine how le land should be owned in the ;st interests of all concerned. In le past it has been customary for ,nd to be controlled by succeeding mior males in each family. How rer, equitable division among joint iheritors is an ever-increasing ract i c e. Providing he makes iequate provision for his depend its, a landowner, having acquired is land under modern title may ienate any portion without regard » customs.