Special Settlements.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 8, 8 December 1884, Page 2

Special Settlements.

The following regulations for the formation of settlements to be formed throughout the colony . under the provisions of the Land Act, 1877, Amendment Act, 1879, are gazetted : — . 1. Any association of persons of not less than twenty-five, who may be desirous of settling on Crown lands adjacent to each other, may arrange with the Government for a block of land on the following general conditions : — 2. (This clause gives the interpretation of terms used, and is omitted here.) j 3. Any . block of land to bo selected i under these regulations shall contain not less than 1000 acres nor more than 10,000 acres; and it will be surveyed into areas of not more than 100 acres or thereabouts. 4. All surveys shall be conducted m accordance with instructions to be given from time to time by the SurveyorGeneral of the colony, and subject to his approval m every respect. The cost of survey and roading, not exceeding 2s Gd per acre, shall be paid for by the secretary, m, say four instalments, three months to elapse between each payment. The first payment "shall be made when the association has agreed to take a speecial block. I 5. Such portions of the land as may be required for the purposes of the Government of the colony, or for educational, recreation, or other public purposes, and as shall be approved by the Minister, shall not be open for selection under these regulations. 6. The allotment of sections to members of the association shall be made at such time and m such manner as the association may, with the consent of the Minister, determine. ... 7. The price of land .shall be such as may be arranged between the Minister and association, payable as follows : — One-tenth of the price of the whole block shalljbe paid by the secretray prior to the allotment of the sections. This will be m satisfaction of the two first half-yearly instalments to be reckoned as due from the next first day of January or July following. Thereafter the payments shall be made by each purchaser every six months m advance, at the rate of one-twentieth of the price of the- land, until the whole price has been paid. 8. One-third of the price of the land will, from time to time, as paid to the Government, be repaid to the local body' of the district or the association, for ex-, penditure on roads m or leading to the block. 9. All the' moneys required to be paid for the land under these terms and conditions' shall be paid to the Eeceiver of Land Bevenue (who will m most instances be the local postmaster), and receipts given by him shall be sufficient discharges for the payment of the moneys .therein respectively acknowledged to have been received. 10. The purchaser shall be entitled to a Crown grant of the land selected by him,, upon proof to the satisfaction of the Minister that he has been continuously m residential occupation of the land selected by him, either personally or by a registered substitute for a period of six years, and has fulfilled all the conditions. 11. All usual and accustomed fees for the time being payable for the issue of the Crown grant shall be paid- by the purchaser. 12. The purchasers shall be members of the association, and shall not be under 18 years of age. 13. The secretary shall inform the Minister of the names of the purchasers, and also furnish the Minister with minutes of proceedings of the association if so required. 14. A certificate signed by the secretary of the associationn shall be sufficient evidence that the person claiming to select land is a member thereof. 15. Each purchaser shall, within two years from thedate of his nurchasAviiiig lino duuvation not less than one-tenth of the land purchased by him. Each purchaser shall, within fourteen years from the date of his purchase, bring into cultivation not less than onefifth of the land purchased by him. Each purchaser shall, within six years from the date of his purchase, m addition to the cultivation of one-fifth of the land, have put substantial improvements of a permanent character on the land to the value of £1 for every acre of such land. 16. The expression " substantial improvements of a permanent character" shall, for all purposes of these regulations, mean and include reclamation from swamps, clearing of bush or scrub, cultivation, planting with trees or live hedges, the laying out and cultivating of gardens, fencing, draining, making roads, sinking wells or water-tanks, constructing waterraces, m any. way improving the character or fertility of the soil, or the erection of any building. 17. Cultivation shall mean (1) fencing the land with timber or other durable materials, not being a brush fence " or (2) breaking up and laying down the same m English or other cultivated grass ; or (3) breaking up and planting or sowing root or other crops therein; and, m case of bush lands, the felling and clearing, of timber and sowing of grass. 18. In the event of the death of a purchaser before having received a grant of his land, Ins interest m the allotment will revert to his' legal representatives, who may dispose of it to a bona fide settler approved by the Minister; and the purchaser shall be deemed to stand m the position of the original occupant. . 19. Should any purchaser be compelled to leave the district previous to his being entitled to his Crown grant, and before completing the requisite term of occupation, it shall be competent for the Minister to permit such purchaser to transfer his rights, title, and interest m the land selected to another bona fide settler, who shall be deemed to occupy the position of original occupant : Provided always that no purchaser shall be allowed to hold more than 100 acres under these regulations. • • ; 20. No person who is a holder of land on deferred payments, or who has acqiu'red any freehold under that system, or who is holder of any land on perpetual lease, and no person who is the owner of a preemptive right, or who is the owner m fee of more than 320 acres of land m all m New Zealand, and no person who has made an arrangement or agreement to permit any one, save his son or daughter, to acquire by purchase or otherwise the allotment m respect of whi.ch his application is made, shall be entitled to become a purchaser under these regulations. 21. Any purchaser who shall fail to coinpiy. with these regulations m any respect shall, upon sufficient proof thereof to the satisfaction of the Minister, forfeit his interest m the land selected, and the Minister shall cause suoh interest to be sold by public auction to a bona fide settler; and these conditions shall be sufficient authority for such forfeiture and re-allotment. Any settler purchasing shall be deemed to stand m the position of the original purchaser. ,22. The association may make such rules and regulations from time to time as it may deem necessary, subject to the approval of the • Minister. 23. In case any doubt shall arise as to the construction of these terms and conditions, with reference to the selection and occupation or clearing of any land, or otherwise arising thereunder, the same shall be settled by the Minister. . ,