Note 58 — Chapter IV · AGRICULTURAL TRIBES.

As to the Kingsmill Islands, the particulars given by Wilkes and Parkinson, as quoted in the second chapter of Part I58 sufficiently prove that all land had been appropriated. According to Wilkes “any one who owns land can always call upon others to provide him with a house, canoe, and the necessaries of life; but one who has none is considered as a slave, and can hold no property whatever.” Hale tells us that “the katoka are persons not originally of noble birth, who either by the favour of their chief or by good fortune in war, have acquired land and with it freedom”59. If in Wilkes’ statement we read “proletarian” instead of “slave,” and take Hale’s “freedom” in an economic, not in a legal sense, we find that here too the lowest class were destitute of landed property.