Formation of Special Settlements.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1807, 15 March 1886, Page 3

Formation of Special Settlements.

REGULATIONS. Any amodatkm of persons of not leu than who may be desirous of settli- g oa Crown lands adjacent to each other, may arrange with the Government for a block of land on;tbe following general conditions

Any block of land to be selected under these regulations shall contain not less than i.ooo acres nor more than n.ooo acres, inclusive of roads, townships, and all o:h?r reserves ; and it will be surveyed into areas not exceeding 150 acres or thereabouts, provided that the number of persons ’ocafed in each block shall not be less than one person for every too acres of its total area. Any association may set apart such area within the boundaries of any block it may select, as may be approved by the Minister, not in any case exceeding 640 acres, for a site for a township and reserves. The plan and survey of any township so set apart ard approved to be subject to the provision of regulation 5. All surveys shall be conducted in accordance with instructions to be given from time to time by the Surveyer-General of the colony, and subject to his approval in every respect.

The co .t of survey mod loading, not exccA* mg as. fid per acre, shall be paid for by the secretary in. say, four instalments, three months to elapse between each payment. The first payment shall be mads when the association has agreed to take a special block ; or. subject to the approval of the Minister any association may employ an authorized surveyor, and pay the cost of survey and road making. In sneb cases the aforesaid payment shall not be required. Through roads, to give access to adjacent country must be laid off.

Such portions of the land as may be required for the purposes of the Government of the colony, or for educatiocal, recreation, or other public purposes, and as shall be approved by the Minister, shall not be open for allotment under these regulations. The allotment of sections to members of the association shall be msde at such time and in such manner as the association may, with the consent of the Minister .determine.

The price of the land shall be such as may be arranged between the Minister and association, subject to the said Act. and shall be payable as follows: One-tenth of the price of the whole block shall be paid by the secretary prior to the allotment of the sections. This will be in satisfaction of the two first half yearly instalments, to be reckoned as due from the next first day of January or July following. Thereafter the payments shall be made by each purchaser every six months in advan:e, at the rate of one-twentieth of the price of the laud, until the whole price has been paid. One third of the price of the land will from time to lime, as paid to the Government, be repaid to the local body of the district, or the association, for expenditure on roads in or leading to the block All the moneys required to be paid for the land under these terms and conditions shall be paid to the Receiver of Land Revenue (who will in most instances be the local Postmaster, and receipts given by him shall be sufficient discharges for the payment of the moneys therein respectively acknowledged to h»ve been received The purchaser shall be entitled to a Crown grant of the land selected by him upon proof to the satisfaction of the Minister that be has being continuously in residential occupation of the land selected by him. either personally or bv a registered substitute for a period of six years, and has fulfilled all the conditions : Provided that in bush laud residence need not commence within four years from the date of allotment. All usual and accustomed fees for the time being payable for the issue ot the Crown grant, shad be paid by the purchaser. The purchasers shall be members of the association, and (hall not be under 18 years of age. The secretary shall inform the Minister of the names of the purchasers, and also furnish the Minister with minutes of proceedings of the association if so required. A certificate signed by the secretary of the association shall be sufficient evidence that the person claiming to select land is a member thereof.

Each purchaser stall, within two years from the date of bis purchase, bring into cultivation not less than one-ientb of the land purchased by him. Each pm chaser shall, within four years from the date of bis purchase, bring into cultivation not less than one-fifth of the land purchased by him. Each purchaser shall, within six years from the date of his purchase, in addition to the cultivation of one fifth of the land have put substantial improvments of a permanent character on the land to the value of £i for every acre of such land.

The expression “ substantial improvments of a permanent character’ shall, for all purposes of these regulations, mean and include reclamation from swamps, clearing of bush or scrub, cultivation, planting with trees or live hedges, the laying-out and cultivation of gardens, fencing, draining, making roads, sinking wells or watertanks, constructing water-races, in any way improving the character or fertility of the sou, or the erection of any buiidiag. Cultivation shall mean—

(l ) Fencing the land with timber or other durable materials, not being a brush fence, or (z.) Breaking up and laying down the same in English or other cultivated grass , or (3.; Breaking up and planting or sowing toot or other crops therein ; and in case of bush lands,. tjie felling and clearing of timber and sowing of grass

In the event of the death of a purchaser before having received 1 grant of his land bis interest in toe allotment, will revert to his legal representatives, who may dispose of it to a bmm fide setter approved by the Minister , and the purchaser shall be deemed to stand in the posi.ion of the original occupant.

Should any purchaser be compelled to leave the district previous to bis being entitled to his Crown grant, and before completing the required teim ot occupation, it shall competent for the Minister to permit such purchaser to transfer his rights, title, and interest in the land seiecied 10 another bona fide settler, who shall be deemed to occupy the position of original occupant Provided always that no purchaser shall be allowed to hold more than 130 acres under these regulations.

No person who is a holder of 370 acres of land on deferred payments, or who has acquired any freehold under that sys era to the tame extent, or who is a holder of 320 acres of land on perpetual lease, and no person who is the owner of a preemptive right, or who is the owner in fee of more than uo acres of land in all N .Z., and no person who has made an arrangement or agreement to permit any one, save his son or daughter, to acquire ly purchase or otherwise ibe allotment in respect of which his apjlcauon ia made, shall be entitled to oecome a pur chaaer under these regulations.

Any purchaser who shall fail to comply with these regulations in any respect shall, upon sufficient proof thereof to the salisfac bon of the Minister, forfeit his interest in the land wire tad, and the Minister shah cauae such interest to be sold by public Mctton to n ieu tide settler; and these WMUkesshall be sufficient authority for •och forfeiture and reallotment. Any MUer so purchasing shall be deemed to position of the original pur.

““he such rules and tune to time as it may the Mffik2w!^‘” bleCUo * he *PP roval of

*°y .doubt shall arise as to the these terms and conditions. Sum —to the selection and occupatwm or clearing of my Und. or otherwise the tame shall be settled