The Kroo Reservation Ordinance

Kroo Reservation [Cap. 127 1285 CHAPTER 127. KROO RESERVATION. WHEREAS an Act of the Colony was passed on the eighth day Preamble. of November in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, intituled "An Act for purchasing and vesting in His Majesty certain lands now belonging or said to belong to Eli Ackim of Freetown, in the Colony, trader, for the site of a town for the Kroomen resorting to the Colony for labour ": AND WHEREAS by the said Act the Governor was authorised to purchase and acquire from the said Eli Ackim, compulsorily or otherwise, as much land as should be sufficient for the purposes of the said Act within certain boundaries therein set out, to wit, Saunders Brook on the east, Signal Hill Road on the south, Saint George's Bay on the north, and a line thereafter to be determined by the surveyor on the west: AND WHEREAS in pursuance of the said Act a portion of such land was acquired by the Governor and became Crown land and the Kroomen resorting to the Colony were permitted to occupy and build houses thereon: AND WHEREAS owing to lapse of time and the insufficiency of records doubts have arisen as to the extent and boundaries of the land acquired as aforesaid and as to the rights and duties of Kroomen and others in respect thereof: · Short title. Reservation declared Crown land. Reservation under management of Tribal Authority. Cap. 121] Kroo Reservation AND WHEREAS it is expedient to remove such doubts. 1. .This Ordinance may be cited as the Kroo Reservation Ordinance.

(1) All that portion of land described in Schedule A heretoand hereafter referred to as the Kroo Reservation shall, subject to the provisions of section 5 hereof, be, and is hereby from the date of the passing of this Ordinance declared to be, Crown land. (2) A plan, showing the Kroo Reservation, shall be deposited in the office of the Registrar General and may be inspected by any person during the usual office hours.

Subject to any directions which may from time to time begiven by the Governor and to the provisions of this Ordinance, the Kroo Reservation shall be under the charge and management of the Tribal Authority of the Kroo Tribe in Freetown. Non-~oo 4. In case a person occupying land within the Kroo Reserva- :~?~:r~iven tion shall not be a member of the Kroo Tribe, the Governor notice to may by notice forthwith terminate the tenancy of such person leave. subject to the provisions of section 5 hereof. Power to make grants of land or compensation to non-Kroo settlers.

(1) It shall be lawful for the Governor in the case of personsother than Kroomen who before the commencement of this Ordinance have expended money in the purchase or improvement of land within the Kroo Reservation, or have been in the effective occupation thereof by themselves or others, or have become the mortgagees of such land in the bona fide belief that they had acquired or were acquiring a legal interest in such land, to make Crown grants of such lands to the persons aforesaid, either with or without consideration, or in the event of such persons being required to give up possession of such land under the provisions of section 4 hereof, to compensate them out of the public funds. (2) All lands granted under the provisions of this section shall be deemed to be outside the Kroo Reservation and exempted from the operation of this Ordinance. (3) All applications from persons claiming to be entitled to the benefit of the provisions of this section shall be made by petition to the Governor within twelve months from the commencement of this Ordinance. :~ ' .: 1!!11111 K roo Reservation [Cap. 127 1287 6 The Kroo Reservation shall be maintained as a place of ResbervaKrtion . l l d . to e a oo ttlement for the Kroo peop e on y an no person other than settlement. se l{rooroan shall be permitted to build or acquire or occupy a house within the said Reservation; and. Krool?en occupying d therein at the commencement of this Ordinance shall be ~n med tenants at will of the Crown, and no larger tenancy than et~nancy at will shall be deemed to subsist between the Crown :nd l(roomen occupying land on the said Reservation. 7 The Governor in Council may, subject to the provisions of PGower of. • · k u1 • h 11 f h overnor m this Ordinance, rna e r es Wit respect to a or any o t e council to following- make rules. (1) The use and occupation of the Kroo Reservation, and the terms and conditions of tenure thereon, and the terms on which houses may be transferred or sold, and the disposition of houses permanently vacated by death, change of residence or otherwise. (2) The size of lots and the nature of the buildings which may be erected, and generally all matters relating to the management, use, control and improvement of the Kroo Reservation and the better carrying out of the provisions of this Ordinance. Until rules are made under the provisions of this section, the rules set out in Schedule B hereto shall have effect. *

If under any Ordinance now, or hereafter, in force, landsand hereditaments may be seized for the payment of debt, houses within the Kroo Reservation shall be liable to be seized, but the same shall only be sold to Kroomen. SCHEDULE A. All that piece or parcel of land situated, lying and being in the northern side of Kroo Town Road, Freetown, in the Colony of Sierra Leone, and ?ounded on the east by the brook known as Saunders Brook, which empties 1tself into Kroo Bay, 905 feet; on the west by a watercourse running in a northerly direction from a point 105 feet westwards along Kroo Town Road from the centre line of Grandcess Street to a distance of 558 feet; on the north by a line running in an easterly direction from the northern end of the west b?undary aforesaid, 263 feet, and thence in a south-easterly direction for a d1stance of 150 feet, and thence in a north-easterly direction to the northern end of the east boundary aforesaid; on the south by Kroo Town Road, starting from the lunction of Westmoreland Street, Saunders Street and Kroo Town Road, running westward till it meets the southern end of the western boundary, 0 din * Schedule B is printed in Volume containing the subsidiary legislation of thiS r ance. Houses seized for debt to be sold only to Kroomen. Sec. 2.