Homestead System.

The Homestead or "Free Grant" system is confined almost exclusively to the provincial district of Auckland, and is most liberal in its provisions and in the inducements it holds out to bonâ fide Settlement.

The following are the conditions which apply to all selections under this system:—

1.	Homestead lands, before being proclaimed, arc classified according to quality into first and second class lands.
2.	The area allowed to be selected by each person of the age of 18 years or upwards, shall be of first-class lands fifty acres, or of second-class lands seventy-five acres; and for persons under 18 years of age, of first-class lands twenty acres, or of second-class lands thirty 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 first-class, or three hundred acres of second-class lands.
3.	Within three months after the selection has been approved by the Board, the selector shall commence to reside on his section, and shall continue to reside continuously thereon for five years from the date of such approval as aforesaid.
4.	Within eighteen months after such approval the selector shall erect on his selection a permanent dwelling-house of wood, or other materials, of the value of at least £50.
5.	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 page 186 the term of five years, one-third of the selection of open land, or one-fifth if bush land shall be under cultivation.
6.	Non-performance of any of the foregoing stipulations shall render the selection void, and the right of the selector therein, and all improvements thereon shall be forfeited.
7.	At the end of the said period of five years a grant or grants shall issue for the lands selected: Provided the selector shall not have forfeited his right there to in manner aforesaid.

The localities in which lands are at present open for selection under this system, are as follows:—Mangonui, Bay of Islands, Whangaree, Port Albert, Matakana, and Raglan.

In addition to the above, other extensive tracts of land are intended to be rendered available from time to time as the wants of intending selectors may seem to require.

The extent and situation of the waste lands of the Crown in the district are shewn in the accompanying lithograph plans.