Department of Lands & Survey



Cantilever

Some said Nauru Island is part of a seabed which was pushed up above the sea level over centuries ago.Thus the island is then made of crop pinnacles, and these pinnacles were then covered up by birds faceces which then turn into super phosphate.

The island is not an atoll and it area is about 8 square miles. The highest point is about 300feet and like all islands, it has coral reef in average layout length of about 150feet to 300feet (surround the island) from the sea breakers to the edge of the sand beach. The sand beach then stretches for about 10feet to 50feet (surround) before the phosphate topsoil.

It is the beach that is most intriguing since it has it own seasonal outcome. Beaches in Nauru does not stay or display itself in it usual form as in the beaches of the Carrebean island, it changes in displaying of other pariticles (beside the usual human junks and rubbish) made through forces of the waves.

All sand particles may have the same substances but different in sizes, and what most fascinating is where did the pebbles size sand comes from in one of the seasons? Seemed there to be 3 sizes of sand pebbles in 3 seasons, and as a layman, I believed these sand pebbles were exposed through dictation of the open ocean current which pounded the island coast line in form that brushes off lighter sands for exposure of other particles...._

~~NAURU LAND EVALUATION PROJECT~~

Background : Nauru is a small island in the Pacific Ocean, located just south of the equator, to the northeast of New Guinea and the Solomon Island. Nauru is only 21 square kilometres (8.1 sqaure miles) in size, making it one of the smallest nations in the world. As an island country, Nauru has no land borders with other countries. It is roughly circular in shape and has about 30 kilometres (18 miles) of coastline.

The Land in Nauru belongs to the people of Nauru. The possession of land is the main concern. Almost every native on Nauru is the owner of the Land. Both men and women own land and can give it while they are still alive or by will after death to both sons and daughters and even to unrelated friends.People who have no children leave their property to nephews and nieces.

Since the late 1920's the ownership of land in Nauru has been determined by Nauru Lands Committee. First established by Administrator Newman in 1928-1958 and constituted by the Deputy Head Chief and four of the older and experienced Chiefs. The Committee was given legislative backing only in 1956.

The determination of land ownership before the creation of the Committee was done by the Chiefs whose decision could be appealed to the Administrator under a system which followed closely the practice of the previous German administration. The establishment of land ownership had become important both in the non-phosphate bearing lands as well as the phosphate land.

The Lands Committee has been appointed for the purpose of investigating matters relating to boundaries and ownership of lands, and of determining the owner of every block of land on the island of Nauru. Each landowner would be issued with a document called a Land Title on which will be shown a plan of the land and a description of the boundaries; With intention that in future all land transfer would have to be done using the title and recording the changes at the Government Lands Office.

To determine the land ownership of the Phosphate mined land a Commission of Inquiry was conducted in 1987. Mr Christopher Weeramantry was the Chairman of the Commission and he had written a book "Nauru Environmental Damage under International Trusteeship" after conducting the commission of enquiry which was published in 1992. There appear to be no authoritative accounts of Nauruan custom in the holding and dealing with land before the advent of colonialisation.

The Government is facing difficulty to acquire land for development purposes. Today the land law of Nauru is to be found primarily in the Lands Act 1976 and, by and large, continues the regime in force previously with the exception that if three quaters in number of the joint owners of a property agree to lease it for public purposes then the Minister may override the refusal of minority.