1. All rural land shall be open for sale at a fixed uniform price of one pound per acre.

2. Public notice shall be given by the Board of all blocks of rural land when declared open for sale, and the boundaries and position of such blocks shall be defined in such notice.

3. A book, to be called the "Application Book," shall be kept open during office hours at the Principal Land Office, in which the name of every person desiring to make any application to the Board shall be written in order by himself, or his agent authorized by any writing signed by such person; and such person or his agent shall at the same time, give to an officer to be appointed by the Board for that purpose particulars of his intended application, which particulars shall be in writing, and in the case of any application for the purchase or leasing of any land shall give sufficient information to identify the land applied for.

4. At the time of entering his name in the Application Book every applicant for the purchase or leasing of Crown lands shall pay to the officer to be appointed by the Board as mentioned in the preceding section a fee of two shillings and sixpence.

5. The Board shall consider and determine all applications in the order in which the names of the applicants shall appear in the Application Book: Provided that if any person shall not appear either personally or by some page 180 agent duly authorized in writing on his behalf before the Board, when called in his turn, his application shall be dismissed until his name shall appear again in the book in order.

6. If two or more persons apply on the same day for the same rural land, such land shall be put up for sale by auction at the upset price of one pound per acre.

7. Immediately on the payment in the manner directed by this Act of the whole purchase-money for any rural land, the purchaser shall receive from the Board 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 the provisions of this Act will admit.

8. 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 that, when the land is found to be in excess, such excess may either be retained by the Board or paid for by the purchaser, at the discretion of the Board: Provided further 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, so much of the purchase-money as exceeds the price of land to be conveyed shall be returned to him by the Receiver of Land Revenue, upon a voucher certified to by the Chairman of the Board. The license to occupy shall in any case be amended by the Board in accordance with the report of the surveyor, and the Crown grant shall be made out in accordance therewith, and the license shall be delivered up to the Board when the Crown grant shall be issued.

9. It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council, under regulations to be made in that behalf, notwithstanding anything contained in any Act relating to mining, from time to time to grant to any occupant of land under business license in the Township of Ross, in the County of "Westland, who has improved such land to the satisfaction of the Warden of the district, a lease for any term not exceeding twenty-one years of the surface of such land, at such rates of payment for rent, and under such restrictions as to the use thereof, as he may think necessary, and page 181 such lease shall entitle the holder thereof to all the rights and privileges now enjoyed by holders of business licenses issued under any Act relating to mining.

If at any time during the currency or at the termination of any lease heretofore granted or hereafter to be granted the land leased is proved to the satisfaction of the Governor in Council to be not auriferous, the land shall be sold by public auction subject to valuation for improvements, as provided for in sections forty-three and forty-seven of "The Mines Act, 1877." If at the end of the lease the land is not proved to be not auriferous the lessee shall be entitled to a renewal of the lease for a further period of twenty-one years, on such terms and under such restrictions as the Governor in Council may prescribe.

10. It shall be lawful for the Board, with the assent of the Governor, to set apart blocks of land to be opened for occupation without payment, but subject to the conditions as to cultivation and residence hereinafter set forth, herein called the "homestead system."

11. The Board shall give public notification of all blocks of land that from time to time may be declared open for selection on the homestead system, and shall also publicly notify the following conditions, which shall apply to all selections under the aforesaid homestead system:—

(1.)	The area allowed to be selected by each person of the age of eighteen years or upwards shall be fifty acres, and for persons under eighteen years of age twenty acres; Provided that the total quantity to be selected by any one family or number of persons occupying the one household shall not exceed two hundred acres of land.
(2.)	Within three months after the selection has been approved by the Board the selector shall commence to reside on his selection, and shall continue to reside continuously' thereon for five years from the date of such approval as aforesaid.
(3.)	Within eighteen months after such approval the selector shall erect on his selection a permanent dwelling-house of wood or other materials, which shall be specified in regulations to be issued in reference to homestead-system selections.page 182
(4.)	In each year there shall be brought under cultivation one-fifteenth of the area of such selection if open land, and one twenty-fifth if bush land, so that at the end of the term of five years one-third of the selection of open land, or one-fifth if bush land, shall be under cultivation.
(5.)	Non-performance of any of the foregoing stipulations shall render the selection void, and the right of the selector therein and to all improvements thereon shall be forfeited.
(6.)	At the end of the sand period of five years, a grant or grants shall issue for the land selected : Provided the selector shall not have forfeited his right thereto in manner aforesaid.