Land Laws.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4041, 10 December 1881, Page 1

Land Laws.

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The lands in Victoria are administered by the Minister for lands, subject to the exercise of certain powers which are rested by the Land Act of 1879 in the Board of Laud and Works, and are sold uuder the provisions of that and two amending Acts. Speaking generally, the lands are either sold by auction or taken up by selection. The great bulk of the land dealings at present are under the latter.

under the Act of 1869 selected lands were sold for 20s the acre, of which 2s per acrf bad to be paid yearly for ten years. For the first three years the occupation was by license, the land could not be assigned or sublet, and the licensee was required within two years to fence it in substantially, and to cultivate one tenth of it. Subject to these conditions, bo was entitled at the end of three years to a seven years' lease wjtli the privilege of selling or sub-letting nt a rental of 2s an acre, and to a Crown, grant at the end of his tenancy! No .more than 320 acres could be held by one person

All lands were open) to sale by auction at an upset price of not less than £1 per acre, 25 per cent, being payable upon the sale, and the residue within a month.

The rental of pastoral runs was fixed at 8d a head for sheep, and 4s a head for cattle, upon the number which the ran. was estimated by the Board of Land and Works to- carry. By the Land Acts of 1878 and of 1880, the condition of lessees of. selected land was materially .altered by provisions which extended the tenancy to twenty years, wiih a rent of Is per acre per annum, and there are now somewhere about 50,000 selections held under these conditions.

There appears to be a considerable dificulty in obtaining a punctual payment of the rents, and it is stated roughly that about one-half the tenants are in arrear to the extent of two years' rental, more or less. The rents are payable every six months, dating from the commencement of the tenancy; and every month a list of the payments in arrear for each month is published in the Gazette; the arrears of the month of January, 1880, amounted to over £4,300, owned by 2,720 tenants. The condition of forfeiture has been enforced in a great number of cases where the rent has not been paid, nor the con* ditions of tenancy fulfilled; but it is found impossible to forfeit the land where the tenant has. fulfilled his conditions of occupation, and in* vested considerable sums in improving the land, and has failed only in paying his rent. ... A register is kept of the pastoral runs, of which there are about 800, at a rental of about £120,000 per annum. A list of the sums and the rentals due for the year is published annually in the Gazette.

There are between six and seven millions of acres of land under selection at present. The number of selections current does not appear to be on the increase; the numbers. in which the purchase is completed, or which are forfeited for non fulfillment of the conditions, being about equal to the new selections.