A very interesting paper was read by Miss Mary Kingsley
before the Anthropological Section on Tuesday, the sub- ject being the law and nature of property among the peoples of the true negro stock. The three kinds of property existing in West African culture, said Miss Kingsley, were,— (1) ancestral property of the tribe ; (2) family property in which every member of the family had a certain share ; (3) private property,—i.e., that acquired or made by a man or woman by personal exertion, and that gained by gifts. Each of these kinds of property was equally sacred in the eye of native law. The only kind that could become another kind of property was the private. The President of the section highly praised the scientific value of Miss ICingsley's paper, but it is obvious that the researches of this bold and able traveller have a political value also. The first thing necessary in governing and taxing natives—the two things are one—is to understand clearly and accurately their ideas as to property.
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