LAND ACT AMENDMENT.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 451, 9 August 1879, Page 3

LAND ACT AMENDMENT.

( A r <‘iv Zealander.) The Bill introduced by the Hon Mr Thomson, Minister of Lands, is intended to bo read subject to the interpretations contained in the fourth section of “ The Land Act, 1877,” and to validate “ all proclamations, orders, warrants, or other instruments made prior to the coming into operation of tl o said Act, by which respectively any land was opened for selection on deferred payments.” The amendments proposed in relation to deferred payments are these: The Governor may from time to time fix the ■upset price on rural land at 30s per acre, and suburban land at 90s per acre, with an increase of price for land of special value. Small sections may be grouped to make up the maximum area of one allotment, when such small sections arc immediately contiguous to one another. The compulsory cultivation clause of the existing Act shall not apply to land wholly covered with forest, and the words “ substantial improvement,” shall include “ clearing and cultivation.” Compensation for improvements on land must be assessed, and declared sit least one month before the time appointed to recciva applications for occupation of such land. The value so assessed to bo paid to the Receiver of Land Revenue by the selector within one month of making his selection, and in default he shall forfeit his license and the deposit paid on application. No person who has acquired freehold under the “ homestead” system in force in the Land Districts of Auckland and Wellington respectively shall bo allowed to become a selector under the said Act. Payments to County Councils of revenue arising from lands selected, is to be thus arranged. In section 59 of the Act the following words are to be omitted :—“ And the payments made by selectors shall, from time to time, until the amount of such one-third be readied, be paid over to such County Council or Road Board as the case may be and the following words are to bo inserted in lien thereof:—“ And one-third of the payments made from time to time by llio selectors shall, as the same arise respectively, be paid over to such County Council or Road Board as the case may be.” Payments P for pastoral lands sold on deferred payments are to bo dealt with as ordinary land revenue. The Governor may at any time set apart, out of any rural lands adj’oining lines of railways, areas as village settlements, such areas to be subdivided into allotments of not more than five acres and forty acres respectively. Such allotments to be sold either for cash immediately on purchase, or on deferred payments, or leased for any term not exceeding ten years, with right of purchase to the lessee at any time dining the currency of his lease. From and after the commencement of the Act, when runs are put up for sale by auction, the person entitled to receive a license to occupy any such run for pastoral purposes, shall pay the first half-year’s rent in advance, instead of the first year’s rout as provided by the existing Act. The foregoing amendments are intended to do away with certain discrepancies retarding the smooth working of the present] Act, and to afford additional facilities to men of small moans to obtain freeholds without being compelled to trust to the assistance of money lenders-.