It stands as an historical example of an indigenous community exploited and expropriated by the mercantile mining interests of the British Empire.

The Mining Ordinance 1928 of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony was written to compulsorily purchase it.

In 1931, 150 acres of land was acquired, and leased to the Commissioners with royalties held "on trust" for the Banabans, but none for the former landowners.

Subsequently, the Mining (Amendment) Ordinance 1937 removed any mention of trust but still said the Commissioner should receive royalties for the benefit of the islanders.

When it was recovered after World War II, the Commissioners acquired the remaining mining lands from the Banabans, who did not know the real value and received no expert advice.

Specific performance would not be decreed because all relevant landowners had not been before the court, and they were limited in a claim for compensatory damages, and these would be nominal because the claimants had failed to prove that their loss resulted from not replanting as opposed to diminution in the value of the land because of non-performance of the covenant.