THE NEW VICTORIAN LAND LAW.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 104, 5 February 1870, Page 7

THE NEW VICTORIAN LAND LAW.

Feeling certain that a few of the more prominent features of the above Act, passed at the last session of the Legislative Council, will prove interesting to our readers, we subjoin a few extracts, summarised from the " Australasian," and bearing upon similar questions as have for a considerable time been agitating the New Zealand public. This new Land Law deals chiefly with the following: — Settlement for agricultural purposes ; settlement for pastoral purposes ; commonage ; and the use of lands for other than agricultural purposes. The leading conditions affecting mining for gold* and other metals are dealt with in another enactment. This Act deals mainly, — almost exclusively, — with the cultivation or profitable occupation of land. In various ways the Act preserves intact all common law rights accruing under itself and previous laws, and in many ways secure j the rights of heirs under difficult circumstances. It is also arranged that when land lapses to the crown, the Governor may convey the same so as to restore it to the family of the last owners.

As under previous Land Acts, previous purchasers of land had certain certificates allowed them, as a consideration for their having had to pay for their land when they bought it a higher price than was subsequently charged, such certificates allowing them to select or purchase other land under more favourable circumstances than mere new-comers, it is now enacted that such certificates shall stand as representing 4s. per acre in any subsequent purchase. FKEE SELECTION OF CROWN LANDS. The waste lands of the Crown, i.e., those not already sold or reserved, or disposed of for purposes similar to what are about to be described, are laid open to the free selector. That is, any person (with the exceptions presently to be named) may on any day during office hours apply personally to the land officer (an official whom the Q-overnor may appoint anywhere) for a license to occupy an allotment of Crown lands which he may choose, he depositing half a year's rent for the same. Such license the Grovernor may (he is not compelled, and so there can be a refusal at discretion, which is a protection to the genuine settler as against the pretended one) issue, and it entitles the holder to " occupy " (as before described) any " allotment " (also before described) for three years at 2s. per acre per annum. The conditions of such license are as follows :—: — Half-yearly payments of rent in advance.The licensee not to assign, transfer or sublet, under penalty of the license becoming void. The licensee to make improvements {i.e., enclose the land with a good and substantial fence, and cultivate at least one acre out of ten) within two years of the issue of his license. The license to be annulled and the Crown to re-enter if the rent be not paid or the allotment be not occupied within six months of the issue of the lease, or substantial and permanent improvements declared by the "Board" (as before described), or arbitrators, to be worth £1 for every acre in the allotment, be not made by the licensee (his executors or administrators) before the end of his third year.

If all these conditions are complied with (the same being duly certified to the Board) the licensee can, at the end of the three years, either obtain the fee-simple of his land by Crown grant upon payment of 14s. per acre; or otherwise he can obtain a seven years' lease of the land at the same rent as before (subject to the old conditions if the rent be not paid). If he takes the lease all he pays as rent Will go towards the 14s. per acre purchase money, and thus, at the end. of his seven years' lease and ten years' occupancy, he can, upon payment of the last sum due for rent, obtain his Crown grant ; or at any time during the seven years he can pay the difference between the 14s. and what he has already paid on account of rent under his leas^, and obtain his Crown grant then. It will thus be seen that the lessee never has in any case to pay more than 14s. per acre, and even when the payment of the instalments (in the shape of rent) lasts over seven years no interest is charged, There is a provisio that the condition of occupancy shall, during the currency of the license, not be obligatory on the executors or administrators of any such licensee who may die. Another provisio expressly declares that no license or lease shall give the right t,o its owner under any circumstances to search for or take any metal ; and the last provisio requires every applicant to declare on oath that his application is in conformity with, and not in violation of, the provisions of the Act. We have already stated that no licensee can, either in his own name or that of another, take up more than 320 acres under any previous. Land Act ; nor shall a selection be allowed to any one who shall have taken up a preemptive right (under any former

enactment), or whose previous selection shall have been forfeited for evasion of the conditions under which it was taken up (although, if he selected a lesser amount of land under a previous law, he may make up the balance of 320 acres under this), or who shall be under 18 years of age, or who shall be a married woman undivorced or not judicially separated, or who is merely a trustee or agent, or who has, at the time of the application, agreed to let some one else acquire the allotment by purchase or otherwise. It is expressly intended that the benefits of the law shall go only to genuine settlers, and if there be any violation of the conditions the Governor may any day, by publication in the " Government Gazette," declare the license forfeited, the pseudo-licensee losing all his previous payments. It is also provided that all contracts which would have the effect, if valid, of violating the act shall be void. This penalty of forfeiture of license for an infranction of any of the conditions of the act is carried to its utmost limit. A simple notice in the " Government Gazette" constitutes the licensee a tresspasscr, and provision is made for his forcible dispossession. The Board authorises a person to take possession of the selected allotment, and if the occupier refuses he can be summoned before justices (one of whom must be a police magistrate), after evidence, can summarily order an ejectment in the same manner as by a sheriff in the ordinary course of law. The fact of the substantial and permanent improvements being of the value of £1 per acre of the whole allotment is ascertninable either by the Board itself through its officers, or by simple arbitration, the means of which are provided. It is most plainly stated that no assignment of a license can be allowed in any form. Non-payments of rent are to be gazetted. The licensee is to have all the legal rights of a possession save that of impounding ; but if he has taken up un surveyed lands, he is liable at any time to have his boundaries adjusted and fixed by the Board after survey. The other conditions under this part of the act refer to selectors under previous laws, and they are of an unimportant character. SALE OF CROWN LANDS BY AUCTION. All Crown lands in Victoria, whereever situated, may (subject to such conditions, exceptions, and reservations, as the Governor may impose) be sold by public auction, at the upset price of £1 per acre, or higher, as the Governor may direct ; but not more than 20,000 acres can be sold in each year. PROCEEDS OP LAND SALES TO GO FOE RAILWAYS. The new law contains clauses which set forth that, in 1870 and every year thereafter, there shall be paid, from the moneys arising from the sale and alienation (otherwise of Crown lands) , the sum of £200,000 — that is, £200,000 per annum — to a trust account called the "Eailway Loan, Liquidation, and Construction Account." This money is to be appropriated to and legally available for the following purposes, viz. : — For the repurchase of railway debentures heretofore or hereafter issued ; to provide for the construction of State railways to such an amount as the Governor in Council may approve. Also, for the making of any railways, the construction of which shall be authorised by Parliament. PROVISION AS TO COMMONS. The Governor is authorised to proclaim any Crown lands as a common, and place it under the management of the local governing body, directing how fees shall be imposed, and collected in connection therewith. Commons can also be abolished or united one with another. The Governor may also appoint managers to frame regulations for management, or for the eradication of thistles — such, managers to be regarded as owners of the common in relation to the impounding of cattle, and to act as bailiffs to prevent encroachment or trespass. PASTORAL OCCUPATION OF THE LAND.

The new law declares in effect that the Governor shall issue to the persons who should at the time of the passing of this act be in licensed occupation of runs for pastoral purposes, and the executors, administrators, and assigns of such persons, yearly licenses to occupy such runs for pastoral purposes, but with this stringent condition, that no such license should prevent such run or any part thereof from being sold, leased, or licensed wider any of the preceding parts oj this act, proclaimed a common, occupied by virtue of licenses issued under the Goldfields Act, or otherwise dealt with or alienated noio or hereafter. After this year, i.e., from Jan. 1, 1871, such licensee is to pay as lent 8d for every sheep, or 4s for every head of cattle which the run shall be declared by the Board capable of holding. It it also provided that such rent shall be readjusted five years afterwards ; and further, that for the current year (1870) the amount of rent shall be determined by the Board, and paid, and payment enforced, as if this present law had not been enacted. The Board can at any time within six months, after arriving at the conclusion that such and such a rent is too high or too low, readjust the amount accordingly, and the announcement in the "Government Gazette" of the rent to be paid is to be taken as bind-

ing and conclusive upon every occupier of land for pastoral purposes.

In respect to new runs, consisting of unoccupied territory or runs previously forfeited, it is provided that they shall be put up to auction, the highest bidder becoming the licensee. Before such auction, the Governor is to see that none of the runs are larger than sufficient to carry all the year round 4,000 sheep or 1,000 head of cattle, and also to determine upon the rent. If no bidders, the rent can be reduced, and the run or runs put up again. Nevertheless, the new runs are not to be supposed exempt in any way from the conditions affecting other runs, but to be liable, at any time, to be sold, leased, or licensed, or proclaimed a common, or occupied for mining purposes, or otherwise alienated or dealt with, under the authority of the law.

No licensee may cultivate more grain, hay, vegetables, or fruit than is required for consumption on his run.

The occupier of a new run is to be entitled to pre-emption of any land upon which any buildings, yards, or other such improvements may be erected, and the Governor may allow him to purchase 320 acres of the land on which such improvements are situated at the rate of £1 per acre. Rent is to be payable in half-yearly instalments, and recoverable at law like any other rent ; if each instalment is not paid within seven days after it is due, a penalty of £2 is inflicted for every day it is in arrear, power being given to the Governor to remit the whole or part of any such penalty. If the rent goes unpaid for a month, the Board is to notify in the " Government Gazette " that the run is liable to foi*feiture; and if the full amount, together with all penalties, be not paid within a month after 1 , then it will be lawful for the Governor to declare the run forfeited, after which the interest of the occupier in such run will cease. No occupier of land for pastoral purposes is to be entitled to any compensation by reason of this law being hereafter repealed or altered. TRESPASSES AND PENALTIES IN RESPECT TO THE ENTIRE ACT. Land officers cannot apply for allotments under a penalty of £100 and loss of office. Making a false statement in respect to an application for a license, for a selected allotment, or refusing to answer any question in relation thereto put by the land officer, or giving a false answer thereto, is punishable either by a fine of from £10 to £20, or imprisonment from 14 days to six months, either to be summarily imposed by any two justices. For unauthorised occupation of Crown lands, or for knowingly depasturing cattle or sheep on land not a common, without due authority, a fine not exceeding £5 may be inflicted, £20 for the second offence, and £50 for any subsequent offence ; but such penalties are only recoverable by a person authorised in that behalf by the Board. MISCELLANEOUS. Travellers with cattle or sheep may, unless the same are affected with any contagious or infectious disease, depasture them for a period not exceeding 24 hours on any unsold Crown lands within a quarter of a mile from any road or track, commonly used as a thoroughfare. Every person desiring to drive cattle or sheep across the land or run of any person possessing a certain number of sheep or cattle must give due notice to such owner, with full information as to where the travelling sheep came from, &c. The Act is to remain law till Dec. 31, 1880.