Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The New Zealand Constitution Act [1852]: together with correspondence between the Secretary of State for the colonies and the Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand in explanation thereof

Sec. III.—Proclaimed Lands Outside Hundreds

Sec. III.—Proclaimed Lands Outside Hundreds.

7. In Districts outside Hundreds which may be proclaimed

Rural Lands outside Hundreds to be sold at the fixed price of 10s. per acre.

or notified as open for sale, the intending purchaser must pay to the Commissioner of Crown Lands (or other officer appointed in that behalf), in cash or scrip, the price of any section or sections of land, (generally not to be less than forty acres in extent) which he may desire to select: the price for all lands so selected being at the rate of Ten Shillings per acre. A surveyor will then be sent who will lay off the section or sections which may have been chosen, and will put the Purchaser in possession of the same.
8. In Districts beyond the limits of Hundreds which may

But where Land is so unavailable that the Commissioner shall certify it is not worth 10s. per acre, Lands so certified shall be surveyed and put up to Auction at 5s. per acre.

be proclaimed or notified as open for sole, and which may appear to be, from their hilly and broken character or otherwise, so unavailable for agricultural purposes, that the Commissioner of Crown Lands shall, upon the application of an intending purchaser, certify to the Government that the lands applied for (or any parts thereof as the case may be) are not worth ten shillings per acre, the applicant must state the number of acres so certified as not being worth ten shillings per acre which he desires to purchase; and deposit with the Commissioner (or other officer appointed in that behalf) ten per cent, of the upset price next mentioned, in cash or scrip. Such lands will then be laid off by the Surveyor in rectan— page 122 gular blocks of not less than 80 acres nor more than 640 acres in extent each, and these blocks will be offered for sale at Auction at an upset price of Five Shillings per acre, according to the Regulations hereinafter prescribed for conducting Auction sales. If some other person than the original applicant become the purchaser of such lands, then the deposit of cash or scrip made by such original applicant will be returned to him; but if no other purchaser comes forward and the original applicant does not complete the purchase himself, the deposit of ten per cent, will be forfeited.

Mineral sections, or other sections for which there may be several competitors, may at any time be pat up to Auction.

9. Nothing contained in the foregoing Regulations shall be construed to prevent the Government from offering any Mineral section for sale by Auction, if it should be found to possess peculiar value, or any Rural section, if from the amount of population in the vicinity thereof, there may be several competitors who may appear to have equal claims to it.

Rural allotments to be generally of a rectangular form, and extend at least forty chains in depth from roads, rivers, &c.

10. Every allotment of Rural Land must, so far as circumstances and the natural features of the country will admit, be selected of a rectangular form, and, where fronting upon a river, road, lake, or coast, be of a depth from the front of at least half a mile. No such allotment must be selected so as to monopolise the wood or water in any particular locality.

But in any cultivated localities allotments of irregular shape and small extent may be laid out.

11. But in those neighbourhoods where there may be a considerable extent of cultivated land, and persons may desire to complete their properties by the purchase of adjoining lands in blocks of irregular shape and small extent, the Government will afford every proper facility for their doing so. And in such localities small blocks of land will be laid out, in as far as possible, to meet the views of intending purchasers.

In districts where the lines of road are not laid out, aright of road reserved and allowance made in land from three to five per cent.

12. Where lands shall be purchased in Districts in which all future lines of road have not been determined and laid out, a right of road will be reserved in the Grant, an allowance being made to the purchaser for such reserve according to the annexed scale:—
Purchasers of 500 acres or less will recieve an allowance of 5 acres per cent.
Purchasers between 500 and 1000 acres 4 acres per cent.
Purchasers of more than 1000 acres 3 acres per cent.
page 123
13. No person will be allowed to purchase the Homestead

Right of preemption of homesteads granted to run holders at a fixed price of either 10s. or 5s. per acre: the run-holder, however, may be called upon to exercise this right.

of any occupant of a run held with the permission of Government, until the offer of purchasing such homestead shall have been made to the occupant of the run at the price of either Ten Shillings per acre, or Five Shillings per acre, according to the quality of the land, as the same shall be certified by the Commissioner of Crown Lands. The occupant of the run will in such case be allowed to exercise the right of purchasing his homestead at such fixed price over an extent of land varying from ten to eighty acres, at his discretion. But the Government reserves to itself the power of requiring the occupant to exercise this right at any time after one month's notice, although no person should have applied to purchase the land.
14. If any intending purchaser, other than the holder of

Lands applied for, which form part of a sufficiently stocked run, will, provided they be certified as unavailable for agriculture, be put up to auction at 5s. per acre, after three months notice of sale shall have been given to the run holder.

the run, shall apply to the Commissioner to purchase land forming a Run or portion of a run which is with the sanction of Government in the bona fide possession of such holder; which shall in the opinion of such Commissioner be sufficiently stocked; and which, upon the application of the holder of the run to such Commissioner, shall be certified by him to be, from its hilly and broken character, or from some other cause, unavailable for agricultural purposes; such run or portion of a run shall in that case be disposed of by public Auction at the upset price of five shillings per acre, and in accordance with the regulations hereinafter prescribed for auction sales; but such sale shall not take place until after three months' notice of the application to the Commissioner to purchase such land has been left at some station on the run.