16. The Crown lands within hundreds already proclaimed, or which may hereafter be proclaimed, shall be managed and regulated solely under and in accordance with the provisions herein contained; and, subject to such provisions, the rights of pasturage on Crown lands in any such hundred, and the apportionment of the same, shall be exercised and enjoyed exclusively by the persons who shall take out a depasturing license as hereinafter provided, being owners or occupiers of land within the hundred.

17. A depasturing license shall be granted to every such owner or occupier who shall apply for the same to the Board on or before the first day of December in each year, provided that be shall furnish to the Board a return showing the description and area of land owned or occupied by him, and the number of acres (if any) unenclosed or available for pasture, and the number, description, and brands of all cattle depastured or intended to be depastured by him within the hundred: and any person depasturing cattle upon a hundred failing to make such return as aforesaid, or making a false return, shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding twenty pounds.

18. Each license-holder shall be at liberty to depasture, free of assessment, one head of great cattle, or five sheep, for every ten acres of unenclosed land owned or occupied by him within the boundaries within which cattle may be depastured in the hundred, provided that such license-holder shall prove to the satisfaction of the Board that such freehold land is within such boundaries, and is open to all cattle depastured on the hundred.

19. Each license-holder who is the holder of a miner's right, having a claim within a hundred or block, or who is the holder of a business license issued under any Acts relating to gold fields or gold mining, occupying land by page 171 virtue of license within a hundred or block, shall be entitled to run two head of great cattle within such hundred or block free of charge.

20. No diseased cattle shall be depastured upon, nor shall any pigs or goats be allowed at large within, any hundred; and any person or persons who shall turn out or depasture any diseased cattle or suffer any pig or goat to be at large within any hundred shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding twenty pounds.

21. In the event of scab breaking out in any Hock of sheep which is being depastured within a hundred, the Board, in conjunction with the Inspector of Stock of the district, shall take such steps as they may deem necessary to eradicate and prevent the spread of the disease, and for this purpose may appoint boundaries within which diseased sheep may be depastured.

22. Every license shall commence and take effect on the first day of January, and shall continue in force one year, and for such license there shall be paid to the Board, on the issue thereof, the sum of two shillings and sixpence.

23. As soon as conveniently may be after the first day of December in each year, the Board shall publicly notify a list of the persons to whom and the names of the hundreds in respect of which such licenses have been granted, and at the same time and in like manner the Board shall call a meeting of such persons in each hundred for the purpose of electing from amongst themselves, by a majority of votes, any number of persons to act as Wardens, not being less than three, as the said Board shall in such notice direct and appoint; and such person shall continue in office until the election of their successors, and shall have the regulation and apportionment of the right of pasturage within the hundred for the then current year, or until some other regulation and apportionment thereof shall be lawfully made in that behalf: Provided that every occupier of twenty acres and not exceeding one hundred shall have one vote, and an additional vote for every one hundred additional acres.

24. The persons whose names shall be comprised in such lists, or to whom licenses for part of a year shall be issued, as hereinafter provided, and who shall have paid the yearly assessment fees on cattle, hereinafter referred to, shall have the exclusive right of pasturage on the page 172 Crown lands within the hundred in respect of which they shall hold such license.

25. At every meeting to be held for the election of Wardens, a person appointed by the Board shall preside; and, in case of an equality of votes at any such election, such person shall have a casting vote.

26. In the event of the death, resignation, or refusal to act of any of the persons so elected as aforesaid, the vacancy shall be filled up by an election to be conducted, as nearly as may be, in the manner hereinbefore provided.

27. It shall be lawful for the Wardens, at any time within one calendar month after their election, in or by any regulations to be made by them, to compute the quantity of cattle capable of being depastured on the Crown lands within the hundred, to apportion the number of great cattle and small cattle which may be depastured for the then current year by each person holding such license as aforesaid, and to determine the boundaries within which great cattle and small cattle respectively may be depastured; and the persons entitled to vote in the election of Wardens shall, if they think fit, at any general meeting called by the Board, on a requisition by any three license-holders for the purpose, determine the description of cattle to be depastured within the hundreds during the current year, and such decision shall be made by the majority of votes of the persons entitled to the pasturage: Provided that every occupier of twenty acres, and not exceeding one hundred, shall have one vote, and an additional vote for every one hundred additional acres.

28. The regulations so to be made by the Wardens as aforesaid shall be agreed to by a majority of the Wardens, and a copy of the same under their hands shall, on or before the first day of February in each year, be furnished to the Board for public notification. In case the Wardens shall neglect to make such regulations within the period aforesaid, all the powers hereinbefore given to such Wardens shall be held and exercised by the Board.

29. For the purpose of providing for the safety of the cattle to be depastured within any hundred, for improving the common lands, for preventing the intrusion and the depasturing thereon of cattle belonging to or under the charge of any unlicensed person, it shall be lawful for the Wardens, or a majority of them, from time to time to page 173 make such by-laws (not being repugnant hereto) as to them may seem meet, and by such by-laws to impose any fine not exceeding five pounds, to be recovered in a summary way, upon any person offending against the same; and such by-laws shall extend and be applicable not only to persons to whom such licenses as aforesaid may have been issued, but to persons to whom no such licenses shall have been issued, and to all unenclosed lands situated within the limits of the hundred, except as regards unenclosed lands the owners whereof have not agreed to leave their unenclosed lands open to all stock depasturing within the hundred, as hereinbefore provided: Provided always that no such by-laws shall come into operation uutil they shall have received the assent of the Board, and have been publicly notified.

30. It shall be lawful for the Wardens of any hundred, or the majority of them, to authorize the transfer of any such license as aforesaid from the person to whom the same may have been issued to any other person, being an occupant of land as aforesaid situated within the limits of the hundred in respect of which such license may have been originally issued: Provided also that notice of such transfer shall have been given to the Board.

31. It shall also be lawful for the Board, after a return of land and cattle has been made as hereinbefore provided, to issue such depasturing licenses as aforesaid, on payment of a fee of two shillings and sixpence, at any time, for the remaining portion of the then current year.

32. The Wardens of the hundred shall levy and raise yearly for and in respect of all cattle depastured upon the Crown lands within such hundred (except such as may be allowed to be depastured free) an assessment as follows:—

• For every head of great cattle, a sum of three shillings and sixpence;
• For every head of small cattle, a sum of one shilling; to be paid by the person depasturing such cattle, at a time and place and in manner to be appointed by notice under the hand of the Wardens; and the amount received for every such assessment in such hundred or such part thereof as may be situated in any road district shall be paid to the Treasurer of the Road Board of the district in which such hundred or part thereof is situated, page 174 and if there be no such Road Board then to the Wardens of the hundred wherein such assessment accrued, to be by them expended in the construction and repair of roads and bridges in such road district or hundred, as the case may be: Provided that when three-fourths of the land within the hundred are sold or occupied the assessment shall cease.

33. Within one calendar month after the election of the Wardens for any hundred, the Board shall pay over, to any person such Wardens may appoint for that purpose, all moneys that it shall have received for licenses in such hundred, which sums shall be applicable, under the direction of the Wardens, to all or any of such purposes as may be necessary to give effect to this Act. The Wardens shall, in a book to be kept by them for that purpose, enter true accounts of all sums of money by them received and paid under the authority of this Act; and at the close of the year for which they shall have been elected the said Wardens shall furnish a copy of such book to the Board for public notification, and shall pay over to the Wardens for the ensuing year the balance of such moneys (if any) remaining in their hands, and shall conform to and observe all such rules and regulations as may from time to time be made by the Board for securing the due application of the moneys received by them under the authority hereof.

34. In case any person liable for the payment of any such assessment shall neglect or refuse to pay within thirty days after notice the amount due in respect thereof, it shall be lawful for the Wardens of any hundred, or, on their failing so to do, for the Commissioner of Crown Lands, without prejudice to any other remedy they or be may have at law, to issue a warrant under their or his hand directed to some constable to levy the amount so due by distress and sale of a sufficient part of the cattle and other goods and chattels of the party liable, in like manner as in the case of rent in arrear between landlord and tenant.

35. Any license-holder depasturing sheep upon hundreds shall do so within such limits as the Wardens may appoint; and in the event of such sheep being allowed to trespass beyond the boundaries so appointed, they may be impounded in any public pound, and shall be dealt with according to law, as if they had been found trespassing on page 175 fenced lands the private property of the "Wardens: Provided always that nothing herein contained shall be held or construed to authorize the impounding of any sheep or cattle which are being depastured on any land, whether fenced or not, which is the property of or is lawfully occupied by the owner of such sheep or cattle.

36. No person shall remove cattle from beyond the boundary of any hundred other than those belonging to him, or for the removal of which we shall have authority from the Chairman of the Wardens or the Board, under a penalty of not exceeding twenty pounds.

37. Any person shooting cattle on any hundred, without the consent in writing of the Chairman of the Board of "Wardens previously obtained, shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding twenty pounds.

38. Any person who shall set fire to any herbage or grass upon the Crown lands within any hundred, without the consent in writing of the Chairman of the Board of Wardens previously obtained, shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding twenty pounds; but such consent will not protect any person from the consequences of any loss or damage which may be sustained by any person by reason of the carelessness with which such burning of the hundred may be performed.

39. The Board may appoint one or more Rangers for each hundred, whose duty shall be to see that the provisions of this Act are carried into effect, and to report any neglect or breach thereof to the Board.

40. Any license-holder may be required by the Wardens or Ranger of the hundred at any time to make a return of the cattle being depastured by him within the hundred, with the same particulars as is hereinbefore required in the case of applicants for a depasturing license; and any person who shall fail to make such return for a period of forty-eight hours after being required so to do, or who shall make a false return, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds.

41. If any person, not being licensed as aforesaid, shall depasture any cattle on the common lands of the Crown within any hundred, or, being so licensed, shall depasture on such lands as aforesaid a greater number of cattle than shall have been apportioned to him, every such person shall be liable to a penalty of not exceeding fifty pounds.

42. Every act hereinbefore authorized to be done by the Wardens of any hundred may, in any case where no Warden shall be elected, or where the persons elected as Wardens, or the majority of them, shall refuse or decline or neglect to act, be done, executed, or performed by the Board, or by such person resident in the hundred as it may appoint to act in that behalf. And when any person shall feel aggrieved with any act or decision of the Wardens, or of any general meeting of license-holders as hereinbefore provided, it shall be lawful for him to appeal to the Board, and the Board shall hear and determine such appeal in such manner as the Board shall think fit, and their decision shall be final.

43. As soon as conveniently may be after the proclamation of any hundred, the Boord shall compute the quantity of cattle capable of being depastured on the Crown lands within such hundred, and, by regulations to be issued by the Board, apportion the number of great cattle and small cattle which may be depastured for the then current year by each person holding such license as aforesaid, and fix and determine the boundaries within which great cattle and small cattle may be respectively depastured: Provided always that all regulations made by the Board shall be approved by the Governor: Provided further that, should the Board fail to make such regulations, it shall be lawful for the Board, and it is hereby required, to call a meeting of the license-holders in such newly-proclaimed hundred, in order that the license-holders may appoint Wardens in manner hereinbefore provided.

44. The right of pasturage over all lands proclaimed, or to be proclaimed after the passing of this Act, which at the time of such Proclamation were or shall be held under lease or license for depasturing purposes, shall remain with the lease-holder or license-holder until regulations affecting such lands shall be made under the provisions of this Act, and no longer.