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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 56

Alienation by Selection

Alienation by Selection.

No Crown lands are allowed to be selected until after they have been surveyed and declared open for sale.

When land is declared open for selection, the sections are offered for sale by auction,

Mode of selection.

in the order fixed by the Surveyor-General, at an upset price of £1 per acre, the competition being, in the first instance, confined to persons who declare their intention of residing upon the land they buy. Lands which have been open to selection by personal residents, but not sold for a period of three months, may be taken up under the condition of substituted residence. The highest bidder is entitled to the section bid for and also to select adjoining lands, the whole area not to amount to more than 1,000 acres of country or improved lands, lie is then declared the purchaser, and has at once to nay 10 per cent, of the purchase money, with the value of the improvements, if any, added. Successive lots are offered in this manner until all the bidders under personal residence are satisfied. Lands which have been offered and remain unselected are open for sale at £1 per acre, with the cost of improvements added. In the case of simultaneous applications, the person declaring his intention to reside on the land has the first choice; and if all the applicants either do or do not intend to reside, the right of choice is decided by lot.
Within thirty-five days of the purchase, the purchaser has to sign an agreement

Conditions attached to credit purchases.

to the effect that after nine months he will reside on the land, or, if he has not declared to do so, that he will keep there a substitute, and that he will continue to do this during nine months of every year until the purchase money is paid; that he will make substantial improvements before the end of the second year to the extent of 5s. per acre; before the end of the third year, to the extent of 7s. 6d. per acre; and before the end of the fourth year, to the extent of 10s. per acre; such improvements to consist of all or any of the following:-Erecting buildings, sinking wells, constructing tanks, and fencing, draining, and clearing the land; that he will bring into cultivation, during the first year, at least one-tenth of the land; and during each subsequent year, until the purchase money is paid, that he will have under cultivation at least one-fifth of the land; but if osiers, olives, mulberries, vines, apples, pears, oranges, figs, almonds, carob trees, potatoes, onions, beetroot, mangold-wurtzel, hops, apricots, peaches, walnuts, sweet chestnuts, filberts or cobnuts, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, cherries, or plums are grown, one acre under any of these counts for six acres under ordinary cultivation.
All amounts paid by the purchaser on credit are regarded as purchase money. One-tenth

Payments on credit purchases.

of the purchase money has to be paid at the time of purchase; within fourteen days of the beginning of the third year another one-tenth of the purchase money has to be paid (being for one year in arrear and one year in advance); within fourteen days of the fifth and each subsequent year up to and including the twentieth, one-twentieth of the purchase money has to be paid; and if he has complied with the conditions, he is entitled to a Crown grant. Selectors can, however, complete their purchases after carrying out all the conditions of agreement for ten years only.
Persons who, having bid for land, refuse or neglect to make the necessary payments,

Penalty for not taking land bid for.

or sign the requisite declarations, render themselves liable to a penalty of £25.
Lands sold on credit are not allowed to be transferred, unless with the approval of

Transfer of lands sold on credit.

the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the permission is only given in cases where the purchaser dies or the transferor is unable to occupy the land from illness, physical capacity, or necessary absence from the colony, or, being a woman, marries. The transferee is in all cases bound by the same conditions as the original purchaser.
Country lands offered at auction for cash and not sold, and which remain after-wards

Leases for ten years.

unsold for five years, may be offered on lease for ten years, in blocks of not more than 1,280 acres, at an annual rent of not less than 6d. per acre, with a right of page 18 purchase at the expiration of the lease at £1 per acre. No conditions beyond paying the rent when due are attached to these leases.

Leases for twenty-one years.

Country lands, in certain districts named in the Land Act, or afterwards to be proclaimed, which have remained unsold for one month after being offered at auction may be offered for lease for twenty-one years, in blocks of two square miles, at as annual rent of not less than 10s. per square mile, with a right of purchase at any ting during the last eleven years of the term, at £1 per acre. These lands are open it leasing to personal residents only for a period of three months, after which they an open to lease without any residence condition. In the former case, residence within [unclear: te] miles of the land leased is deemed residence thereon, and all payments constitute purchase money.

About two million acres of land in the south-eastern portion of the colony are classified as "drainage lands," "first-class lands," and "second-class lands, ad these are reserved for leasing to personal residents only. Any one person may [unclear: hold] 1,000 acres of either drainage or first-class land, and 3,000 acres of second-class land Residence for nine months in the year on either drainage or first-class land is deems residence on second-class land. Drainage lands are leased for seven years, with if right of renewal for seven years at a valuation. First and second-class lands as leased for fourteen years, with a right of renewal for fourteen years at a valuation Leases are offered at auction. Conditions—to reside and fence.

Leases to be offered at auction.

The right to leases of country lands, under these provisions, is to be offered for sale by auction. If there are no bidders, the right may be had by any person applying.

Conditions of leases.

The rent of such leases is to be paid yearly in advance, and the lessee must. [unclear: ea] year, clear not less than a fortieth of the land, until one-half of the same is fit for agricultural purposes, as far as the nature of the land permits.

Extent allowed to be leased.

No person is allowed to hold or have any interest in more than 3,200 acres in [unclear: all] leased under these provisions.