84 • TRAVELS IN 
1. The most ancient tenure is that of Loan lands. These 
were grants, made to the original settlers, of certain portions 
of land to be held on yearly leases, on condition of paying to 
Government an annual rent of twenty-four rix dollars. Every 
farm was to consist of the same quantity, and be subject to 
the same rent, without any regard being paid to the quality 
of the land. And though the lease was made out for one 
year only, yet the payment of the rent was considered as a 
renewal ; so that the tenure amounted, in fact, to a lease held 
in perpetuity. And the buildings erected on it, together 
with the vineyards and fruit groves planted, called the iipstals, 
were saleable like any other property, and the lease con- 
tinued to the purchaser. 
When application was intended to be made for the grant 
of a leasehold farm, the person applying stuck down a stake 
at the place where the house was meant to be erected. The 
overseer of the division was then called to examine that it 
did not encroach on the neighbouring farms, that is to say, 
that no part of any of the surrounding farms were within half 
an hour's walk of the stake ; or, in other words, that a radius 
of about a mile and a half, with the stake as a centre, swept 
a circle which did not intersect any part of the adjoining- 
farms. In such case the overseer certified that the loan farm 
applied for was termble, otherwise not. And as it generally 
happened that the site of the house was determined by some 
spring or water-course, the stake was so placed that the cir- 
cumference of the circle described left a space between the 
new and some adjoining farm of one, tvt'o, or more miles in 
