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Acts Affecting Native Lands, Etc. (In English and Maori), Passed by the General Assembly, Session 1892, 1893, 1897, 1898, 1899.

Leases

Leases.

41. Subject to any special conditions contained in this Act in relation to the leasing or occupation of any particular class of lands, the provisions of this section and of the three next-following sections shall apply to all leases under this Act:—
(1.)

Whenever the Public Trustee is authorised to grant a lease the same may be in such form as the Public Trustee shall in each case approve, subject to the provisions of this Act, and shall, after such approval, be page 15signed by the Public Trustee, and sealed with his official seal as the Public Trustee.

The Public Trustee may vary any form of lease or statutory declaration required under this Act to suit the circumstances of any particular case which may arise.

(2.) There shall be paid in respect of any particular lease or other instrument, or of any transfer thereof respectively, a fee of sixty-three shillings, in addition to the stamp duty; and the Public Trustee may require a deposit to be made of the amount of such fee and stamp duty at the time application is made for any of such instruments as aforesaid, or at any time thereafter; and the Public Trustee may at any time refuse to proceed in any transaction if such deposit, when required, is not made.
(3.) Any renewal of a lease may be effected by writing on the lease a memorandum of the terms, conditions, and covenants to which such new lease is subject, and signing the said memorandum in the manner herein required in the case of an original lease.
42. Every lease shall be prepared by the Public Trustee, and shall be in such form, and shall contain such covenants, conditions, and agreements, not being inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, or regulations made by the Governor, as the Public Trustee may prescribe by regulations which he is hereby authorised and empowered from time to time to make and from time to time to alter, amend, or revoke, and which may either be general or applicable to any particular case or class of cases, and shall be subject to the stipulations following:—
(1.) No lessee shall transfer the possession or occupation of the land leased to or occupied by him, or any part thereof, by sale, under-lease, or other disposition, except the Public Trustee shall sanction the proposed transfer.
(2.) When a statutory declaration is required from any lessee, no transferee, and no purchaser of any lease under any power of sale vested in any mortgagee or assignee or trustee in bankruptcy, shall be admitted into possession or occupation of the land comprised in such lease until he has deposited with the Public Trustee a statutory declaration in the same form or to the same effect.
(3.) Every lawful transferee of any lease, or purchaser as aforesaid of any lease, shall have all the rights and privileges, and be subject to the same obligations, as the original lessee: Provided that the transferor shall be liable for the instalment of rent which shall become due next after such transfer.
(4.) No transfer of any lease shall be valid unless all the conditions upon which the lease was granted have been complied with as to payment of rent or otherwise.
(5.)

If any lessee or licensee shall fail to fulfil any of the conditions of his lease within sixty days after the day on which the same ought to be fulfilled his lease shall be liable to be forfeited, and he shall be deemed, upon such forfeiture, to be in illegal occupation of the land comprised in the lease, and the Public Trustee may proceed for recovery of possession thereof.

The foregoing conditions as regards leases shall operate and shall be deemed to bind the Public Trustee and the lessee as fully and effectually as if they were set forth in every lease.

43. The lessee shall be liable for all rates, taxes, or assessments of every nature or kind whatsoever imposed upon the occupier of the lands included in his lease during the term for which he is lessee.
44. The Public Trustee, upon being satisfied that any lease has been lost or accidentally destroyed, may grant a new lease in lieu thereof, upon such terms and conditions, and upon payment of such fee, in each ease as he shall think fit. When any indorsement is required to be made on any lease, and the same is lost or destroyed as aforesaid, the Public Trustee may grant a new lease in lieu thereof, and make the required indorsements thereon, or, if he shall so think fit, may incorporate the substance of the indorsements with the terms of the original lease and insert them together in the new lease.
45. The Public Trustee and the lessee shall each execute the lease in triplicate.
46.

Every lease, after execution thereof as aforesaid, shall be registered by the Public Trustee under "The Land Transfer Act, 1885," or any Act now or here-after-passed in lieu thereof, in like manner, as nearly as may be, mutatis mutandis, as a Crown grant is registered, and the lease which is retained in the office of the District Land Registrar shall form a folium of the register-book in such office, and on it all page 16dealings therewith shall be registered; but no fee shall be payable by way of contribution to the assurance fund on the registration of any such lease.

All dealings with or transmissions of land comprised in such lease shall be made in accordance with the provisions of the last-mentioned Acts, and be in all respects subject thereto.

47. All dealings with or under leases in contravention of the provisions of section forty-two of this Act as to transfers of leases shall be absolutely void, and the District Land Registrar shall refuse to register any dealing with or under a lease until he is satisfied that the said provisions have been complied with.
48.

Every lease shall be for a term fixed so as to expire twenty-one years from the date of the commencement of the term, and shall be renewable from time to time as hereinafter appears.

The lessee shall pay the rent reserved by his lease to the Public Trustee by equal half-yearly instalments in advance, and the half-year's rent, which must be paid at the time of tendering, shall be in discharge of the half-year's rent due on the commencement of the term.

49. Any person of the age of seventeen years and upwards may become a lessee hereunder, and if under full age shall be as capable of executing a lease, and shall be bound by the terms thereof, and of this Act, as if such person was of full age.
50. Every lease of land shall be put up to public competition by tender, at an upset rental equivalent to five pounds per centum on the capital value, as determined by the Public Trustee, of the land proposed to be leased.
(1.)

All tenders shall be opened simultaneously by the Public Trustee on a day appointed for the purpose.

Every tender shall be deemed to be informal and incapable of being accepted where the rental tendered is less than the upset rental fixed as aforesaid. And no tender shall be accepted unless the same is closed up and accompanied by a statutory declaration in the form or to the effect set forth in form following, together with six months' rent at the rate tendered, and the sum of sixty-three shillings to pay for the lease and registration thereof, paid either in cash or by a marked cheque:—

I, A.B., of [Insert place of abode and occupation], do solemnly and sincerely declare—

1. That I am of the age of seventeen years and upwards.
2. That I am the person who, subject to the provisions of "The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act, 1892," am tendering for the purchase [or is desirous of becoming the transferee or sublessee] of a lease [Here specify land].
3. That I am purchasing such lease solely for my own use and benefit, and for the purposes of cultivation, and not, directly or indirectly, for the use or benefit of any other person whomsoever.
4.

That, including the said lands, I am not the owner, tenant, or occupier, directly or indirectly, either by myself or jointly with any other person or persons, of any lands being portions of reserves within the meaning of "The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act, 1892," exceeding in the whole six hundred and forty acres.

And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of an Act; of the General Assembly of New Zealand, intituled "The Justices of the Peace Act, 1882."

A.B.

Declared at, this day of 18, before me, Justice of the Peace.

(2.) The highest tenderer, if his tender shall equal or exceed the upset rental, shall be declared the lessee, and be entitled to possession of the lands so soon as he has duly executed a lease thereof, and has complied with all other conditions lawfully prescribed in that behalf.
(3.) If the rent offered by two or more persons is the same amount, and is higher than that offered by any other tenderers, then the Public Trustee shall, after opening all the tenders, decide by lot, in such mainner as he shall think fit, which of such two or more persons shall be declared the lessee.
(4.) The deposits and fees paid by the unsuccessful tenderers for any lease shall be returned to them by the Public Trustee immediately after any tender for such lease has been accepted.
51.

If any person who has been declared a lessee shall fail to execute his lease within thirty days after being required by notice so to do, then his deposit and the above-mentioned sum of sixty-three shillings shall be absolutely forfeited to the Public Trustee, and the right of such person to obtain such lease shall absolutely cease and determine.

page 17

Where any lessee shall forfeit his right to a lease as aforesaid, and as often as such a ease shall occur from time to time until the land be leased, or until there be a failure at tenderers whose tenders are formal, the Public Trustee may, at any time within seven days from such forfeiture, declare the next highest tenderer for the same lease whose tender is not informal to be the lessee; or, if the rent offered by two or more persons is the same amount, and is higher than the rent offered by any other tenderer save the one who has so forfeited his right to a lease as aforesaid, may decide by lot which of such other persons shall be the lessee. Every person declared a lessee under this section shall, upon his paying the deposit and fees as aforesaid, be declared to have become the lessee on the day of the opening of the tenders as if he had been so declared on such day.

52. If no tender shall be received prior to the time fixed for opening the tenders for any of the leases advertised for sale any person may at any time thereafter apply for any one of auch leases, unless the same shall have been withdrawn from sale by the Public Trustee, and be declared the lessee thereof at the upset rental fixed, upon complying with the other conditions prescribed as to tenders. If, in any such case, two or more applicants shall lodge their tenders on the same day the right to the lease shall be decided by lot.
53. The Public Trustee may at any time, subject to section fifty, reduce the upset value of land which he has failed to lease for one year, and may again call far tenders for the same at such reduced value.