The Kenya Gold Find On the whole, the statement made
by the Colonial Secretary on Tuesday on the gold find in Kenya must be regarded as satisfactory. The difficulties of the situation are obvious. Gold has been found in Kenya and the gold must be mined. It happens to have been found in the middle of a densely populated native reserve, and any natives displaced by the mining operations, which are not likely to cover a large super- ficial area, cannot be compensated with- land imme- diately adjoining their original holdings, because all the land immediately adjoining is occupied. They are, therefore, to be compensated fully in money in the first instance, and on the same basis as any European would be, though with the full intention that they shall be provided with land if and when suitable land can be found. The gold is reserved to the Crown, and the most practicable course would be to grant a conees- sion to some established and 'Competent undertaking on the basis of the payment of substantial royalties to the colony, for the Crown can hardly go in for mining itself. • The principle of displacing natives from land and dompeasating them with nioney is, in normal circumstances, a bad one, for the landless native is a serious problem, but in this case it is hard to see what alternative is available, unless the gold is simply to be left in the ground.
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