THE IMMIGRANTS LANDS ACT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4124, 9 June 1874, Page 3

THE IMMIGRANTS LANDS ACT.

The existence of the “ Immigrants’ Lands Act, 1873,” is a circumstance which is likely to be forgotten while the talk is of free and nomigrated immigration. It is well to remember that such an Act is in force. Recently regulations or, rather, explanations of the purposes of the Act, have been published by the Immigration Office, and these we copy. They are as follow : “ 1. Immigrants of the ago of eighteen years and under sixty years, paying their own passages to the Colony, are entitled to land to the value of twenty pounds; and if the heads of families, for themselves and their families, including wives, children, grandchildren, jfophows, and nieces, in the proportions following Lor themselves and each member of the family over fourteen years, land to the value of twenty pounds ; for each member under fourteen years, laipl to the value of ton pounds. “ 2. The emigrants must be approved by the Agent-General in London as emigrants suitable for New Zealand, by certificate under his hand. “3. Upon arrival In New Zealand the immigrants must within sixty days apply personally to an Immigration Officer, and produce to him the Agent-General's certificate, Idling up at the same time an application to be placed on the list of immigrants registered for laud. “4, The Immigration Officer shall then enter the name of the, immigrant, and all particulars regarding him and his family, in a register kept for that purpose, and shall deliver to the immigrant a certificate of such registration ; and forward forthwith a certified copy of such entry in the register to the Hon. the Minister for Immigration.

“5. At any time within five years after arrival in New Zealand, the immigrants who have been registered as above may make application to the Hon. the Minister for Immigration to purchase laud for them, furnishing a description of the laud they desire to obtain, which must bo laud open for sale by the Crown, to the value to which they are entitled under their registration ; and iu making such application they are to enclose the certificate of the Immigration Officer, or a certified copy thereof. “N.B.—The land either for an immigrant or an immigrant and his family must be iu one block ; and if the laud applied for cannot for any reason be obtained, the immigrants must make a fresh application. “6. A Crown grant of the land will be issued to the immigrant two years after the date of purchase by the Hon. the Minister, provided that—“(a.) Such land has been continuously occupied by the immigrant and his family. “ (b.) That one-fifth of such land has been laid down with artificial grass, or ploughed and sown with root and cereal crops, or planted as a vineyard or orchard, or with forest trees, or that at least one-fifth has been cultivated partly in one and partly in another of such manners as aforesaid. A certificate to this effect, signed by two Justices of the Peace, must be forwarded to the Hon. the Minister for Immigration before the Crown grant can be issued. “ 7. If these conditions of section S arc not fulfilled, the laud revex-ts to the Crown. “8. The interest of a registered immigrant in the land, previously to the issue of a Crown grant to such immigrant, is not assignable in law or in equity, xxor can it bo devised by will, nor encumbered by mortgage, nor taken in execution.”