Land Laws.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4054, 24 December 1881, Page 1

Land Laws.

The following extracts have been made from the teport presented to Parliament during laat session. The report wa> furnished by the Auditor General, J. E. Fitzgerald, C.M.G., ,who visited the neigh* boring colonies at the request of the Go* vernmeot. The following appears, under the head of Land Revenue, Queensland :—

The public lands in Queensland are sold or leased under various Acts. In gold* fields they, are managed: under the gold mining Acts, and are administered by the Minister for Mines. Elsewhere they are broadly divided into " lands open for*elec* tion," and "other lands," and are ad-N ministered by the Secretary, for Public Lands. .AH " other. . lands" may be purchased as " mineral/lands'' at 30s per acre. Any lands may be sold by auction as "town," "suburban, l' or "country" lands after being proclaimed open forsuch sale by the Government, - the upset price being not less than £8 per acre for " town " lands, £1 per acre for " suburban " lands, and 10s per acre for " country " lands. Mineral lands are also leased and con* ditions of occupation,are attached.' '* - 1 The great bulk of lands taken up for settlement are those applied for as " con* i ditional selections" under the Act of 1876, and the Act; now repealed, of 1876. Under the latter they were divided into classes—" Agricultural," "first class-pas* toral," and " second class pastoral, .at , the prices, of 15s, Ida, and 5s per!acre respectively. . .. : . . Under the Act of 1876, tße upset price of the land isdeclared by proclamation.

Conditions of improvement, either by fencing nnder Act of 1868, or the expen> „ diture of a fixed sum per acre under the existing law, are attached 'to all eon* ditionat selections. The purchase money is paid by equal annual instalment's in tea years; bat the first year's payment and the fee for survey t must be paid on application. The second'year's payment is - a broken sum proportionate to the, portion of the year extending from the ' expiration of twelve months from date of ' application up to the 91st of the following March, on which day the fcniraal payments are doe. thereafter. A limit is fixed at 5,120 acres, which q»«J be held by one purchaser, including all his selections. Under the Act of 1868, an area of 10,880 acres were allowed to be selected.

"Homestead selections" involving actual personal residence are also provided at 2s 6d per acre. ,* In the case of auotion sales 20 per cent is paid ott the sale, and the balance,within thirty days. The survey fee is fixed on a scale proportionate to the area. .. . There are 3d land districts, in each of

which there is a Land Agent and a Commissioner of Crown Lands. When districts have been proclaimed open for selection, extending over pastoral runs, half the run has-been opened for selection, and a ten years lease of thel other half has been given to the pastoral tenant. This was the policy of the Act of 1868, now repealed, and was applied to the settled districts. There is no such provision in the existing law except in the go called railway reserves in which only half the runs are permitted to* be resumed at any time. . . . When the final payment is made on a selection, all the papers are snbmitted to the Auditor, who has to satisfy himself that all the. payments have been made, and that the Crown grant may be issued, especially as the selection may, in the meantime, have been transferred to one or more persons by the. original selector. The difference between the system of conditional purchase in New South Wales and in Queensland is this: In the former the payment of one shilling an acre per annum is taken, part of which is taken to be a payment of interest on the outstanding debt, and the balance only is used as payment of the price of the land. The result is that the period within which the whole debt will be extinguished is, largely extended, and the number of selectors indebted to the Government is..largely, increasing year by year. • In Queensland, on the other, hand, there is no interest payable, the annual rental goes to extinguish'the debt. Debts are paid off almost as rapidly as fresh debts are created, and the period of final payment is limited to a moderate time. r ..,. Thus, whilst in the one a class is rapidly growing up which threatens to influence, v not some day to command the electoral roll, in the other the class of those still in debt to the Government is counterbalanced by another class; also increasing year by year, of those who have completed their payment, and who have therefore a strong interest in insisting that others shall not obtain land upon more favourable conditions than those which they have themselves been compelled to fulfil, in other words that the value of their own land shall not be depreciated. -O ? ' Whatever opinions may be held on the general question of the wisdom of selling the public land on deferred payments, it will be admitted that the Queensland system possesses an element of stability which is wanting in that of the older •olony. ■/• " '' * "