102 ITALIAN SOMAUl-AND - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



A. Determination of the Lands at the State's Free Disposal. 



All the provisions aimed at the determination of the lands at the State's 

 free disposal in Somaliland are comprised in the ro^^al decree of 8 Junej[9ii, 

 no. 693 (i) and the governor's decree of 19 January 1912, no. 815 (2) — of 

 which the former recognizes common rights in the lands of the colony and 

 the consequent limitation of those which may be reserved to the available 

 domain, and is completed by the latter which approves internal regula- 

 tion of this domain. 



The royal decree places the land system on solid jurisdictory bases. 

 It contains two affirmations of incontestable practical value — one as to 

 the State's right of sovereignty over the vacant lands of the colony, the other 

 as to the rights of natives and others incident on such lands. These rights, 

 as is easily understood, are entangled and complete each other, so that the 

 better the local governor, to whom authority to distinguish among them is 

 delegated, succeeds in discharging his office with the foresight and caution 

 needed by the delicacy of the situation, the greater will be the attractive- 

 ness of the offers of Somalese land. The land should by his care be emani- 

 cipated from the latent causes of friction between Europeans and natives 

 which impede the agricultural development of many colonies, reducing 

 them to sterile battlefields for contests. This decree also enables the gover- 

 nor to grant to the native population the use of such land as appears neces- 

 sary to their progress, in addition to the land they enjoy because they 

 have in it a recognized right of possession. 



According to the domestic regulations for the determination of the avail- 

 able domain in Italian Somaliland, approved by the Governor's decree of 

 19 January 1912, no. 815, those lands are excluded from the colony's do- 

 main on which Italian citizens or foreigners have valid and recognized rights, 

 and in general all lands to which attach real rights recognized to be effective 

 in the coastal regions, the inhabitated centres and their neighbourhood. 

 Lands " actual!}- cultivated and utilized (3) in a permanent manner", by 

 individual natives or by natives collectively, are likewise excluded ; as are 

 the zones, even if they be not actually cultivated and utilized, of which the 

 usufruct is about to be granted to Kabylies or fractions of these, to supply 

 the recognized needs of their demographic and economic development. Such 

 lands constitute the zones cf native reserves. 



The measures taken in consequence of these rules have the follow- 

 ing aims : 



(?) to ascertain the limits of the available domain as distinguished 



(i) 8 June igii, no. 695, having reference to the definition of the lands at the State's free 

 (l\spo-,a.l in Italian SomaliXa.ni'i. Gazzctta ufficiale del Regno, 17 June iQii, no. 166: Bulleilino 

 ufflciale delta Somalia italiana, 31 January 1912, no. i. 



(2) 19 Januaiy 1912, no. 815. It approves the rules for the determination of the available 

 domain in Italian vSomaliland. Bullcttino ufficiale delta Somalia italiana, 31 Januarj- i9i2,no. i. 



(3) The assignment of lands recognized to be utilized is called accantonamento detle utiliz. 

 zazioni (reservation of utilized lands). 



