AMENDED REGULATIONS RESPECTING AGRICULTURAL LEASES UNDER THE MINES ACT, 1877.

Dunstan Times, Issue 901, 25 July 1879, Page 4

AMENDED REGULATIONS RESPECTING AGRICULTURAL LEASES UNDER THE MINES ACT, 1877.

(7rom the New Zealand Gazette of June 12.) Whereas by the fifty—first section of The Mines ict. 1877” herein referred to as “• the Vsi 1 Act ”). it is enacted that it shall be lawful for the Governor, subject to the provisions of lire said Act from time to time to make, alter amend, and revoke rules and regulations for all nr any purposes thereinafter enumerated; And whereas by the fiftythird section of the said Act it is enacted that the rules and regulations e 'Utained in the Appendices to the said Act shad be deemed to be the first rules and regulations made under the fifty-first and fiftyi w-ond sections of the said Act; And whereas if it expedient that the regulations respecting agri ultural leases under Appendix B to the said Act, and numbered three, five, ten, twelve, thirteen, fifteen, and eighteen, should be amended : Know, therefore, I, Hercules George Robert K hinson, Governor of the Colony of New 7. 'aland, do hereby order that the regulations u her Appendix B particularly referred to above shall be and are hereby revoked, and the following substituted in lieu thereof; — Who may apply. 3. Every application must be made by the applicant in person [previously—or by agent], and the Warden shall not entertain any appli cation unless he is satisfied that the person is [ .reviously—or is on behalf of some other residents ofthe Colony of that age] twenty-one years old, andjlegally capable of being bound bv the contract into which it is thereby proposed to enter, and is not in respect of the land app'ied for, or in respect of any part thereof, the agent or servant of or a trustee for any other person. Ohjeclioni. .'j. Objections that the applicant is not of the full age of twenty-one years [previously—or that he is not resident in the Colon)]; or that ho is in respect of the land applied for the agent . r servant of the trustee for any other pm-ran, or that the whole or any portion ofthe land applied for is claimed or owned by any person other than the applicant, or is in the whole or in part auriferous, or is likely to be rrq ired for any public purpose, must be made i.i writing to the Warden, and lodged at the 0 fiee at which the application shall have been 1 ulged twenty-four hours at the least befo e the time appointed for hearing ; and the person objecting mustat the time appointed for hearing urge the objection personally, or by counsel or agent., 10. At any time before finally dealing with any application the Warden may require a report or snrvey to be made by the District t urveyor, and in such case ihe cost of such survey or report shall be paid in advance [the words “in advance” are now] to the Receiver oi Gold Revenue [all the following is new :] i it her by the applicant or the objecter, or partly l v both, as may be decided bv the Warden. Granting Certificate. 12. If no valid objection as aforesaid be made, and no reason be known to the Warden w liv the application should not be granted, or if on hearing such application he shall decide that a part only of he land applied for should be granted, he shall require the applicant to pay to the Receiver of Gold Revenue a sum calculated in the case where survey fees have not been by the applicant at the rate of three shilling [previously—two and sixpence] per acre, and in the case where survey fees have been paid by the applicant at the rate of one shilling and sixpence [previously—one and three peuc“] per acre, of the land intended to be granted; and such payment will coyer all charges in respect of such grant, inclusive of rent, for the first six months of the terra ; and niton production of the Receiver's receipt for th a above sum to the Warden, he shall give to the applicant a certificate in the form of f idicdule B hereto, hearing even date with ftieh receipt, from which date the commencement of the term of the lease (if a lease bo granted) shall be taken and computed. Governor's Power to refuse Lease reserved. H. On issuing any certificate the Warden shall forthwith forward to the Governor a implicate of such certificate, and notwithstanding the issue of the same, it shall be lawful for the Governor within sixty [previously - thirty] days from the dale thereof to refuse to grant to the applicant a lease of the land referred to in such certificate; and immediately upon such refusal being communicated to the applicant, either personally or by letter addressed to him at his usual or last known place of business or abode, the certificate and any matter and thing therein contained shall be and b* absolutely void, and the applicant shall forthwith quit and deliver up possession ofthe said land, and failing his so doing he may be proceeded against as a trespasser on Crown lands. Pent. 15. Rent at the rate of three shillings [oreviously—2s. 6d.] per acre per annum shall lie payable half-yearly during the term; and at the time of the execution of the lease rent saall be paid up to the first day of January or Ihe first day of July, as the case may be, from the date up to which payment shall then last have been made ; and thereafter the rent shall bo payable by equal half-yearly payments in a Ivanoe, on the first day of January a"d the first day of July in every year; and the payment hereinbefore required at the lime of granting a certificate shall be deemed to include p lyment of rent for the first six months of the lurin, and for the purpose of computing rent every fractional part of a month shall be considered a month, and shall be respectively charged for accordingly. Conditions of Occupation. 18. Every certificate and lease sha’l be subjected to the conditions following that is to say,— I. That no sale or assignment shall be m ide without a license. 2. That not less than one-eighth of the whole area shall be cultivated, or. if timbered land, cleared, within twelvemonths after the commencement of the terra, or one-fourth of the whole area substantially fenced within the same time. . [The whole of the three following paragraphs are entirely new:—] 3. That the lessee shall, within two years rafter the commencement of the term, erect a •dwelling-house of a value of no less than fifty p oinds sterling and that within the same period he shall begin to reside on the land, and continue so to do antil the land becomes freehold. Buildings and residence may bo dispensed ■with in the case of an applicant who resides during the currency of the lease witnin three miles of the land applied for. Buildings and residence may also he dispensed with in all cas-s where, the major part of the land is declared by the District Surveyor, to be of a greater altitude above sea level than •two thousand feet.