The state may grant land of this category to private persons on payment by the latter of the value of the proprietary right - the tithes, ground-rent (should there be private buildings upon it), and the land-tax.
The exemption does not extend, however, to the prohibition of sale for taxes, and in case the householder's buildings are on land which he has leased those buildings are not exempt from sale or levy for the ground rent.
The payment of ground rent for the forts held by the British had ceased after the battle of Dodowah, and by the treaty concluded by Maclean the river Prah was fixed as the boundary of the Ashanti kingdom, all the tribes south of it being under British protection.
The Elmina were regarded by the Ashanti as their subjects, and the king of Ashanti held the Elmina "custom-note," - that is, he received from the Dutch an annual payment, in its origin a ground rent for the fort, but looked upon by the Dutch as a present for trade purposes.
Originally any inhabitant holding a certain measure of land, freehold or subject to the mere nominal ground-rent abovementioned, was a full citizen independently of his calling, the clergy and the lord's retainers and servants of whatever rank, who claimed exemption from scot and lot, to use the English formula, alone excepted.
