WASTE LANDS ADMINISTRATION BILL.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 680, 24 August 1876, Page 4

WASTE LANDS ADMINISTRATION BILL.

(From a correspondent of the Press .) This Bill has just been distributed. It consists of eleven parts and 182 clauses. It is to come into operation on the same day as the Provincial Abolition and Financial Arrangements Acts, It repeals free grants and also volunteers’ grants, except for three years’ service already completed. The interpretation clause defines “ selectors ’’ as persons making application or having license to occupy suburban cr rural land under the deferred payment system on land. “District” menus province. The word “license” includes “ lease ” The commissioners of audit are to be the sole judges of the fulfilment of the conditions of existing occupation licenses. After the land has been open lor sale by auction and not sold, it shall only be open for sale after thirty days public notice. It may then be ollcied again from time to time, in one or more lots, for sale by auction, or declared open for sale on application in such lots, at such prices per acre as the Board may determine, the price not to be less than the minimum price of land open for selection for cash. The Board’s notification of any matter is to be equivalent to the Superintendent’s proclamation. Crown lands include lands on goldfields or under lease from the natives. Crown grant fees and acreage fees are to be prepaid. No undefined preemptive rights are to be granted in future. All such existing rights granted, and not exercised, are to be exercised before May, 1880, or are to be void. Nothing is to preclude any purchaser at auction of any pastoral lease or license of the right of purchasing in one block two hundred acres at the price previously noted. The Governor may make provisional reserves as endowments for education, and cancelled reserves arc not to be sold without thirty days’ notice. Confiscated lands are to be waste lands, subject to the ordinary land regulations. Reserves out of confiscated land may be granted to local governing bodies. Native lands urchased in the North Island are to be waste lands, and to he disposed of accordingly, at not less than .£1 per acre, or, if put up to auction, at ten shillings per acre. Crown leaseholds of native lands are to be sold at auction according to the waste lands regulations. Waste Lands Boards to he established in Auckland and Hawke’s Bay, to consist of the Chief Commissioner and five others. 'J bemembersof these and other Boards are to remain in office only to the Ist of December, 1877. Beards may set aside lands to be sold on deferred payments, applications for which are to be made like ordinary applications. An alphabetical register of selectors is to be kept, and monthly extracts sent to the Secretary of Crown lands. No person is to be entitled to select both suburban and rural land. The maximum of the former is to be ten acres, and of the latter two hundred acres. The price per acre is to be one-half added to the price of land open for sale for cash, or one-half the price added to the price obtained at auction. The bidding at auction is to be limited to the applicants. All persons eighteen years of age may become selectors with certain disqualifications specified. Selectors are to make a statutory declaration of their applications being Iwna fide, under penalty for false declaration. One twentieth of the price is to be paid on application. The license is to endure for ten years ; the fee is payable halfyearly in advance, deposit to go to account of half year’s fees ; personal evidence imperative ; except for the first eighteen months, one-twentieth of the land is to be cultivated in the year ; in the second year another twentieth, and one fifth within four years. Improvements equal to £1 per acre are to be made within sis years, then, if the conditions are fulfilled, the selector may obtain a Crown grant on the payment of the remainder of the price. All rights are to be forfeited by any breach of the license. Selectors may transfer their interests after thirty days’ notice, and on the payment of a£2 fee. The selector’s powers devolve on his administrators or executors if within six months. Officers are to be appointed by the commissioners of audit to ascertain periodically if the terms of the license are fulfilled. Bart 2 amends the Auckland Waste Lauds Acts, substituting «the Governor on the recommendation of the Board” for “ the superintendent in his discretion,’’.and “the Board” for “the Superintendent,” and other alterations. The price in that province is fixed at 20s for first-class land, 15s for second class, and 10s for thirdclass land. Bart 3 amends the Taranaki Act, and fixes the price at not less than 20s for bush, and 40s for open land. Part 4 repeals the Hawke’s Bay Acts, and states that the price of land shall not be less than 15s. Part 5 relates to Wellington, where the price io to be not less than 20s for selection, and 10a at auction. Part G relates to Nelson ; the price of laud is to be not less than 10s. Part 7 relates to Marlborough ; the price of land, not pasture land, is to b 0221,0 1, of pasture land 10s. Part 8 refers to Canterbury ; the annual rent of the runs after May Ist, 1880, is to be assessed according to their carrying capacity, the rent to be paid at per head of stock. A copy of the assessment is to be sent to the innholders before May, 1878. The innholder may elect to hold his run under the new assessment; failing this he may hold his license to May, 1880, and thereafter the run may be dealt with by the Assembly. Runs are to be forfeited if not paid for. The rent is not to be altered till 1880. The runs are to be subject to the regulations. The price of land is to be not Jess than 40s per acie. Parti) relates to Otago, where the price of lural laud is fixed at 255, and of lauds declared only fit for pastoral purposes, at an altitude of not less than 1200 feet, at 12s 6d. In Southland the price is to be not less than 255. Part 11 relates to Westland, where rural lands are open for sale at 25s per acre, in blocks of not less than 20 acres ; and in special blocks of not less than 100, at not less than 12s Gdper acre.