Crack-Down On New Hebrides Land

It’s now 18 months since the French and British Resident Com missioners in the New Hebrides decided on a “get tough” approach to New Hebrides land speculation. And now they have finally moved.

The Resident Commissioners have rejected applications for six major subdivision schemes, involving 5,500 acres, on Espiritu Santo—at Lokalee, Cape Queiros and Palekula. They moved under the provisions of Joint Regulation No 15 of 1971, which requires all land subdividers to have the approval of the Resident Commissioners for their schemes, otherwise the sales of blocks of land cannot be lawfully registered. As a result of the recent decision, the subdividers on Santo are likely to be in trouble, because blocks have been sold already to overseas buyers who will not now be able to obtain legal title to the land.

It had been obvious for some time that the situation was going to become tougher for the speculators—but the administrative machinery moves slowly in the condominium. “Let the Buyer Beware!” was a heading in PIM in December, 1971, over a story warning that the days of laissez faire were going.