Editor's Notes
| Date | 01 January 1964 |
| Published date | 01 January 1964 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1964.tb00629.x |
LOCAL
JOURNAL
OF
ADMINISTRATION
OVERSEAS
Volume
III .
Number
I.January I964
Editor
Js
Notes
A
GLANCE
THROUGH
back numbers of this Journal will give rise to the quite
legitimate question
why
in a professional publication concerned with local
administration there
are
so
many
articles on subjects dealing with
land-
land
reform,
land
title,
and
land
acquisition to mention only a few.
The
connection between
land
and
local administration is very close, indeed
often inextricable.
Land
problems sometimes assume the most vivid
and
violent
colours in the
pattern
of local affairs.
The
possession of
land
rights is after all
the greatest capital asset which the great mass of
the
people in
an
agricultural
society
can
enjoy. Even though in
many
countries customary law debars
the
citizen from owning
land
as he owns a bicycle, yet
the
individual always has
quite definite rights
and
responsibilities connected with the tenure
and
use of
the
land.
Thus
all those persons responsible for local administration, be theyadministra-
tive officers representative of
the
central government or local government
officers, find
that
they are called
upon
constantly to deal with problems
and
often crises arising from land.
It
must therefore be
an
essential
part
of their
knowledge
and
it should be an essential
part
of their training to have a good
grounding in the basic principles of land tenure
and
its associated problems.
It
is fair to enquire how
many
training syllabuses give
adequate
attention to
this fundamental subject.
There
are
so
many
aspects of
land
problems
that
it would be wrong to be
dogmatic how to classify them.
From
the practical administrator's viewpoint
perhaps they fall most naturally
under
the
headings of personal, economic
and
social aspects, remembering
that
every
land
problem
can
turn
highly
political
at
very short notice.
Because
'land'
can
have such far-reaching repercussions
and
because it is
potentially volcanic,
many
governments have to watch it with extreme wariness
and
have good reason to hesitate to disturb
the
status
quo
lest they encourage an
eruption. This is a
pity
because, though
the
subject
can
be explosive, it is
more
likely to become so if it is ignored
than
if it is constantly studied
and
discussed in the hope
that
soundly based public opinion
may
emerge.
That
there is a growing questioning
and
criticism of customary
land
law
is
not
in doubt. As the article) in this issue shows, the criticism is still very
) See p. 3, "Reflections of Traditional
and
Individual
Land
Tenure
in Swaziland", by
A. J. B. Hughes.
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