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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 44

Appendix H. — The Land District of Otago

Appendix H.

The Land District of Otago.

Be It Enacted that within the Land District of Otago—

Sales of rural lands.

1. All rural lands shall hereafter be open for sale or disposal, except such as at the time application is made for the purchase of the same are leased or reserved for leasing, or for occupation on deferred payments, or included or comprised within any license to depasture stock, or reserved from sale by virtue of any power or authority in that behalf given by any Act for the time being in force.

Sale of rural lands within hundreds.

2. All lands which may at any time hereafter be constituted into a hundred shall not be open for sale or lease until the expiration of thirty days from and after the first publication of the Proclamation constituting the hundred: Provided always that it shall be lawful for the Board, by public notification from time to time, to fix a date after the sand period of thirty days as the date on and after which the lauds comprised in such hundred shall be open for sale or lease as aforesaid, and in such case such lands shall not be open until the date mentioned in such last-mentioned notification, or the last of such notifications, as the case may be.

Price of rural lands,

3. The price at which rural lands shall be offered for sale shall be twenty shillings per acre; and, in the event of two or more applications for the same land being made on the same day, the upset price at which such land shall be put up at auction shall be twenty shillings per acre.

Applications.

4. Any person desirous of purchasing rural land shall make an application in writing for the purchase thereof, in page 167 a form to be prescribed by the Board, either at the local Land Office of the district in which the land applied for is situate, or at the Principal Land Office. Any application made at a local office shall be forthwith forwarded to the Principal Land Office.
5. The decision of the Board upon every application for

Decision thereon.

the purchase of rural land shall, if such land shall have been previously surveyed, be given within twenty-one days after the receipt of the application at the Principal Land Office; and, if such land shall not have been previously surveyed, then such decision shall be given on such day as the Board shall appoint, not being more than six months from the receipt of the application.
6. Immediately on the payment, in the manner directed

Occupation license pending grant.

by this Act, of the whole purchase-money for unsurveyed land, the purchaser shall receive a license to occupy, and, as soon thereafter as conveniently may be, the land shall be laid off as nearly in accordance with the description given by the purchaser in his application as this Act will admit. The expense of the survey and of connecting such

Survey may be made at cost of applicant.

survey shall be borne by the purchaser, who shall at the time of purchase deposit the amount of the estimated cost of such survey with the Receiver of Land Revenue, and such survey shall be made as soon as practicable: Provided always that, should any section when surveyed prove to differ in any respect from that intended by the purchaser, the Board will not be responsible for any loss or inconvenience which the purchaser may experience, nor will the purchase-money be returned: Provided also that, if the surveyor shall find that the whole extent of land in the selected locality falls short of the quantity paid for by the purchaser, the Receiver of Land Revenue shall repay so much of the purchase-money as exceeds the price of the land to be granted, and the license to occupy shall in any such case be amended in accordance with the report of the surveyor, and the Crown grant shall be made out in accordance therewith, and such license shall be returned to the Board when the Crown grant shall be issued.
7. Notwithstanding that the Board may have received

Board may refuse application.

an application for land, it shall be lawful for the Board, if it shall by the Board be deemed prejudicial to the public interest to grant the application, either as to the whole or to any part of the land applied for, to refuse to grant the page 168 application, either as to the whole or as to part of the land, and to return the moneys deposited on account of purchase-money, or such part thereof as has been deposited on account of the portion of land applied for and the application for which shall not be granted.

Simultaneous applications.

8. In the event of two or more persons making application to purchase the same land on the same day, the said land shall be offered for sale by public auction.

Portions of land simultaneously applied tor.

9. If two or more applications are made on the same day for the same land, and any such application shall refer only to part of the land applied for in another application, then the auction to be held shall take place in respect of such part only of the land as shall be included in two or more applications so made on the same day.

Timber land may be sold.

10. It shall be lawful for the Board, with the assent of the Governor, to receive and grant applications for the purchase of any rural land upon which timber may be standing, in such quantities as the Board shall see fit, and subject in all respects to the provisions herein contained relating to ordinary rural land.

Cost of survey repaid when applicant not purchaser.

11. If any land, surveyed at the expense of any applicant for the purchase or lease thereof, be afterwards put up for sale by auction, and be sold to some other person than the original applicant, the purchaser shall, in addition to the amount bid for the same at the sale, pay to the Board, for the purpose of being paid over to the original applicant as the cost of the survey, such sum as the Board may determine, and before the auction shall commence such sum shall be publicly declared, and shall be paid forthwith upon the lot being knocked down to such purchaser; otherwise the purchase shall be void, and the land may be again offered for sale or lease under similar conditions.