THE CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT. [From the Canterbury Papers.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 526, 17 August 1850, Page 4

THE CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT. [From the Canterbury Papers.]

TERMS OF PURCHASE. 1. The whole quantity' of land reserved for the Canterbury settlement is about two millions four hundred thousand acres in a block. 2. With the exception of such Land as may be selected by the agent of the Association for the site of the capital (Christchurch), and of harbour and port towns, all the Land will be open for purchase as Rural Land. 3. No block of Rural Land can be purchased of a less size than 50 acres ; but there is no maximum limit to the quantity, either in one or several blocks.

4. The extent of a town allotment in the capital will be one half-acre, and in the other towns one-quarter of an acre. 5. The sum to be paid for Rural Land is £3 per acre, or £150 per section of 50 acres, and the purchase of the surface will include in every case coal and all other minerals not reserved by the Crown, and lying underneath the section purchased. 6. The sum to be paid for a half-acre allotment in the capital will be £24, except as regards the half-acre allotments received by the first body of colonists, according to the provision of Clause 18; and the sum to be paid for a quarter- acre allotment in other towns will be £12; but the latter will not be offered for sale until after the 30th April, 1850. 7. It is intended that a block (of at least 1,000,000 acres) shall be trigonometrically and topographically surveyed, and thrown open to purchasers for selection; but as so extensive a survey must be subject to delay from various causes, which it is impossible to foresee, the Association can only pledge itself that its best endeavours shall be used to lay open as large a portion as possible for selection by the first body of colonists. 8. The first body of colonists will be composed of such persons as may become purchasers of Land, to an extent not exceeding 101,000 acres, on or before the 30th April, 1850. 9. Purchasers of Land in the Canterbury settlement shall obtain the priority of choice of lots, according to the order of application at the Land-office in the Colony ; but, inasmuch as inconvenience may arise from two or more persons applying, among the first body of colonists, at the same time for the same piece of land, the priority of choice, in such cases, shall be decided according to the number of the land order held by the applicant corresponding to the number on a registered list of purchasers, as hereinafter mentioned. 10. Applications for the purchase of Land shall be made by letters in a printed form, to be supplied by the Association. 11. All such letters shall be opened on a fixed day, in the presence of the applicants and the Committee of the Association. 12. The order of opening the letters of application will determine the order in which the names of the applicants will be entered on a registered list, and each applicant will receive a land order the number of which will correspond with his number on thregistered list. 13. All selections by the first body of colonists must be made within eight months after the registered list shall have been made up in the manner before mentioned, as after that period the first body of colonists will have no priority of choice over other purchasers. 14. No applications from holders of land orders will be received at the Land-office, in the Colony, till the expiration of two months after the arrival of the first vessel chartered or selected by the Association, with any of the first body of colonists on board. 15. Every section of Rural Land must be selected of a rectangular form, so far as circumstances and the natural features of the country will admit. 16. Every section fronting upon a river, road, lake, lagoon, or coast, must be of a depth from the front of at leist half a mile. 17. Every section not fronting upon a river, road, lake, lagoon, or coast, must be not less than 300 yards in width, and not less than half a mile distant from a river, road, lake, lagoon, or coast. 18. Every person forming one of the first body of colonists will be entitled to receive two land orders in respect of each sum of £150 paid ; the one for a Rural Section of 50 acres, the other for an allotment of half an acre in the capital (Christchurch), which will contain, besides streets, and other reserves for public purposes, not less than 1,000 acres of Land for private property. 19. The quantity of land purchased by the first body of colonists shall not exceed 101,000 acres. 20. So long as any lands remain unsold, and in the possession of the Association, within the limits of the settlement, it will be open under license for pasturage purposes, at the rate of twenty shillings per annum for every 100 acres, to be paid in advance. 21. Every purchaser of Land in the Canterbury settlement, being one of the first body of colonists, will be entitled to a transferable license, renewable by such purchaser from year to year, for pasturage in the proportion of five acres of pasturage for one of Rural Land in his possession, at the rate of sixteen shillings and eightpence for 100 acres per annum, to be paid in advance, so long as a sufficient quantity of Land in the possession of the Association remains unsold and unappropriated.

22. Each section under a pasturage license must be in one block, and of a rectangular form as far as possible. 23. Lands licenced for pasturage will always be open to' purchase ; and any portion of such Lands may be taken at any time by the chief agent or other authorised officer of the Association, for any purpose other than pasturage, after one month's notice. ' No pasturage license confers any right to the soil, or otherwise abridges or suspends the rights and powers of the Association in and over the Land depastured. 24. As respects pasturage taken under license in virtue of freehold purchases, the right of selection in the first instance will be determined in the same manner as for freehold purchases. 25. If the quantity of Land applied for should exceed 101,000 acres, the purchase* money in full, but without interest, will be returned in respect of all applications in excess of that amount. 26. Public notice will be given by advertisement in some of the principal London newspapers of the time when application* and deposits will be received. 27. The purchase-money must be paid in full before any application can be received. 28. In case through any unforeseen circumstances it should be determined, on or before the 30th of April, 1850, that the enterprise of the Association should not proceed, all deposits and purchase-moneys previously paid will be returned in full, but without interest. 29. The intended application of the £S mentioned above as the purchase- money for Rural Land is as follows :—: — Ten shillings per acre (exclusive of the sum mentioned below for emigration) to be paid for the Land ; Ten shillings per acre for miscellaneous expenses ; Twenty shillings per acre for religious and educational purposes ; and, Twenty shillings per acre for emigration ; subject to the regulations of the Association with respect to the selection of emigrants, every purchaser will be entitled to recommend emigrants, including himself and family, on whose passage to the settlement his contribution to the Emigration Fund shall be expended ; but not more than ten shillings per acre shall be allowed towards the passage of the purchaser and his family. 30. All money received from Town Lands or pasturage licenses will be applied in the same proportions and manner as the fund arising from the sale of Rural Lands. 31. Besides marking out the principal lines of road, the Association reserves to itself the right of appropriating land for making all such other bye or cross-roads as may be necessary for the convenience of the settlers. 32. The Association reserves to itself the right of selecting and appropriating all such Lands in the ports and harbours of the settlement as may be required for wharfs, landing places, jetties, or other objpcts of public utility and convenience. 33. The Association reserves to itself the right of determining the quantity of Land, less than 101,000 acres, the sale of which will induce it to proceed with the undertaking. 34. If at any time the Association should be compelled to relinquish its undertaking, the Land will be no longer reserved for the purposes of the Association, and tbat portion of it which then remains unsold will be discharged from any liabilities incurred under the present terms of purchase. 35. The Association reserves to hself the right ef making such modifications in these terms as experience may prove hereafter to be expedient or desirable for the general benefit of the settlement, and as may be consistent with the conditions under which the Land has been reserved to the Association. By order of the Canterbury Association, F. H. Alston, Secretary. 41, Charing- cross, London, Ist January, 1850.