Pastoral Lands.

These lands are divided into allotments varying in area from 5,000 acres to 40,000, with a capability of from 1,000 to 4,000 sheep or 150 to 500 head of cattle, the annual rent thereon being calculated on the basis of one shilling per head of sheep or five shillings per head of cattle.

The term of any lease under which such land may be occupied shall expire not later than fourteen years after the commencement of the Act.

When the rents of a pastoral allotment have been fixed, notice is given in the Government Gazette of a date on and after which applications to lease will be received and dealt with. If on that day or any subsequent day only one application be lodged in respect of a particular allotment, the applicant becomes entitled to a lease at the gazetted rental. If two or more applications be lodged, the right to obtain a lease is, after thirty days' Gazette notice, offered to public competition at auction, at which the person who bids the highest sum by way of premium becomes entitled to the lease.

The conditions of lease are as follow:—

1.	The annual rent is payable in advance in half-yearly moieties.
2.	The lessee shall not assign, sublet, or subdivide without the consent of the Board of Land and Works.page 5
3.	The lessee will at once, and to the satisfaction of the Board, commence and continue to destroy, and shall, within three years after granting of lease, destroy the vermin on the leasehold.
4.	The lessee shall keep in good condition and repair all substantial and permanent improvements whether constructed by such lessee or not.
5.	The lessee shall not, during currency of lease, ring or destroy or (except for the purpose of fencing or building on the land demised) cut down any timber upon such land unless with the sanction of the Board.
6.	Her Majesty, &c., may resume possession at any time of any of the land demised required for public purposes or for purposes of public convenience.
7.	Governor in Council has power to grant licences to enter on the land demised in lease, and cut, dig, take away any live or dead timber, coal, or other mineral.
8.	Her Majesty may resume as sites for townships or villages, or for mining purposes, and re-enter any lands forming part of leasehold, on paying full value of substantial and permanent improvements effected by lessee on the resumed land.
9.	Her Majesty may resume, after three years' notice in writing, any portion of leasehold upon payment to lessee for his interest in the lease, together with value of substantial and permanent improvements effected on the portion resumed.
10.	The lands demised under any pastoral allotment lease are held subject to a condition that the holder of a miner's right or of a mining lease shall have the right and be allowed to enter upon such pastoral allotment, and to search for gold and mine thereon, and erect and occupy mining plant or machinery, without making compensation to the lessee for surface or other damage.

Upon expiry of the term of the lease, the lessee, his executors, &c., shall be paid by an incoming tenant the value of all fences, wells, reservoirs, tanks, and dams erected or constructed by the lessee and calculated to increase the grazing capability of the land; but the sum to be paid in respect of such improvements shall not exceed that actually expended by the lessee thereon, and in no case exceed the sum of 2s. 6d. per acre of such land.

The lessee of a pastoral allotment at any time during the currency of the lease may select a portion of such allotment, not exceeding 320 acres in extent, as a homestead, in one block, and on payment of 20s. per acre may obtain a grant of the same.

With this exception, no pastoral land shall be alienated in fee-simple under the porvisions of this Act.