36 KLIV SOUril WALES. 



Settlement Leases for Agricultural or Grazing Purposes. 



Tlie settlement lease system, like tliat of liomestead selection, is of 

 recent origin, and is a further attempt to place laud witliin easy reach of 

 the small capitalist. The land does not become available until after clas- 

 sification and survey, but there is no restriction as to the division of the 

 Colony in which it may be situated. The quantity of land which may be 

 taken up is reg-ulated by the size of the farms into which the land may be 

 subdivided. AVhcre the land is suitable for agriculture a farm cannot 

 exceed 1,280 acres ; but where it is suitable for grazing a farm may 

 contain up to 10,240 acres. Before being thrown open, the capital 

 value of the land is determined and the lease is subject to an annual 

 rent (not susceptible of alteration) of 1^ per cent., or 3d. in the £, of 

 this capital value. Application has to be made to the Local Crown 

 Lands Agent, and w-ith the application a deposit of one half-year's 

 rent and a survey fee according to the appended scale are required. 

 The application has to be considered by the Land Board, and after it 

 has been confirmed the granting of the lease is a matter for the 

 Governor. The lease has a term of twenty-eight years. 



In addition to payment of rent, the conditions of the lease are : That 

 the lessee shall pay the value of improvements which may be on the 

 land at date of application, either in one sum or in three equal yearly 

 instalments, with interest at 4 per cent, per annum ; that he shall 

 reside on the farm and make it his hond fide residence during the whole 

 term ; that he shall fence it within five years ; that he shall not assign 

 or sublet without the Minister's consent ; and that he shall conform to 

 any regulations made by the Minister with respect to keeping the farm 

 clear of rabbits or other noxious animals, and also to clearing the farm 

 of scrub and noxious weeds. 



Upon the expiration of the full term of the lease the last holder is 

 given tenant-right in improvements, and during the last year of the 

 lease the holder may convert 1,280 acres into a homestead selection. 



Pastoral Leases and Occupation Licenses. 



Up to the year 1885 the whole of the unsold lands outside town and 

 suburban limits were, broadly speaking, held under pastoral lease.* 

 Lessees, however, although they nominally held for a term of years, 

 had no security of tenure, inasmuch as the land coald be disposed 

 of by the Crown in various Avays, and was open to the selector on any 

 Thursday. Lessees possessed the privilege of buying j^ortions of the 

 land by virtue of such permanent improvements as they had effected, 

 but this was found to invite artificial expenditure on their part, and the 

 privilege, in fact, came to be limited, and at last abolished, by law. In 

 the meantime they had yielded to the temptation of securing- parts of 

 their runs by purchase at auction, and indirectly by conditional pur- 

 chase — a course which, no doubt, w^as in some measure induced by 

 the fact that speculative selection directed against their interest had 

 come to be somewhat freely indulged in. It has thus happened that 

 most pastoral properties at the present day consist of a proportion of 



* It has not been thought necessary here to make any special reference to what were 

 called the first-class settled districts in which the land was held under annual lease. 



