The Solomon (Waste Land) Regulation of 1900 (Queen's Regulation no 3 of 1900), and later revisions, was intended by the British Solomon Islands administration in Tulagi, the Western Pacific High Commission in Suva, and the Colonial Office in London to make land available for commercial plantations by a formal process of identifying ‘waste’ land – that is land not occupied by Solomon Islanders – which could be declared “not owned, cultivated, or occupied by any native or non-native person”. The Regulation of 1900 implemented a concept of ‘waste’ land that was not consistent with Melanesian customs, as unoccupied land was still recognised by customary law as being the property of individual people and communities.