Crown Land Laws.

ADMINISTRATION.

The State of New South Wales is now, for the purposes of the Crown Lands Acts, divided into three divisions-the Eastern, the Central and the Western; the law differs in each. In 1885 the business of the Lands Department was greatly decentralised by the creation of local Land Boards; these Boards are presided over by a Chairman, who is assisted by two coadjutors chosen from among the local residents.

Applications for certain holdings, such as homestead selections, conditional purchases, conditional leases, etc., come before the Board in the first instance for investigation, and applicants are not finally entitled to the land applied for until their applications have been confirmed by the Board. Against the Board's decision an appeal lies to the Land Appeal Court; the decision of this Court is final except that it may be required to submit questions of law to the Supreme Court for deter

mination.

Each Board District is further subdivided into Land Districts, for each of which there is a separate Board; and a Crown Lands Agent in each district supplys information to persons in quest of land and receives applications, deposits, and other payments in accordance with the Crown land laws.

WHAT PERSONS MAY SELECT.

Any person (male or female) of 16 years of age or over may take up a conditional purchase or a homestead selection; but no minor can apply for any lease other than a conditional lease, with the exception that a male minor (not less than 16) may apply for a homestead lease. Minors, generally speaking, are subject to the same liabilities and have the same rights as persons of full age-in respect of their holdings.

An alien cannot take up Crown lands until he has obtained letters of naturalisation, or until he has resided in this State for twelve months, and then at the time of application he must lodge a declaration of his intention to become naturalised within five years from that date; failing such naturalisation the land will become forfeited to the Crown.

Married women are disqualified unless actually living apart from their husbands under a sentence of judicial separation.

LIMITATIONS AS TO SELECTING.

The aim of the various Land Acts being to provide land on easy terms for such persons as require it for their own bonâ

fide use and occupation, the following limit has been set to the quantity of land which one and the same person may acquire in the modes stated.

1. An applicant for a homestead selection, an original conditional purchase, an original homestead lease, or a settlement lease, is debited with the quantity of land already held by him in fee simple or under conditional purchase or conditional lease, and can only take up such an area, as, added to that already held, will not exceed the maximum area allowed for the holding applied for. Provision is made against the defeat of this limitation by fraudulent transfer, assignment, etc.

2. A person who obtains a homestead selection, an original conditional purchase, an original homestead lease, or a settlement lease may not obtain any further holding of any of these classes unless he has obtained a certificate from the Land Board to the effect that adverse circumstances forced him to abandon or surrender his holding. But if his holding consists of a homestead or settlement lease, the disqualification will cease when the term of such lease shall have expired.

Every application for a holding of the class above-mentioned must be made bonâ fide for the exclusive benefit of the applicant himself.

METHODS OF DISPOSAL OF CROWN LANDS.

The methods of alienating Crown Lands are by conditional purchase, homestead selection, purchase by virtue of improvements, purchase at auction, by way of exchange, and by Volunteer Land Order.

The modes of leasing such lands are by settlement, conditional, homestead, improvement, pastoral, annual, scrub, inferior-land, artesian-well, snow, special, and residential lease, or by occupation license.

CONDITIONAL PURCHASES.

WHAT LAND'S AVAILABLE, AREA WHICH MAY BE SELECTED, ETC. A conditional purchase is a purchase of land in fee simple subject to the performance of certain conditions.

Crown lands in the Eastern and Central divisions, if vacant, are open to conditional purchase; not so lands in the Western division, except such as are from time to time set apart as "special areas"; the fact of land being held under annual lease or occupation license does not protect it from selection, and neither survey nor classification of the land is a necessary preliminary. If an applicant selects land containing improvements, he must pay for them, but payment is usually arranged for by instalments.

In the Eastern Division the maximum area is 640 and in the Central Division 2,560 acres ; in either division the minimum area is 40 acres; the maximum area may be acquired at once or by instalments by way of additional conditional purchases.

STATUTORY PRICE SET UPON LANDS.

Land applied for as a conditional purchase usually bears a statutory value of £1 per acre, unless it is in a "special area" (which may be set apart in either of the three divisions), in which case the price may be fixed at £1 10s. per acre and upwards. But, under the Amendment Act of 1899, the value of a conditional purchase may be appraised, and either increased or decreased.

The area of a conditional purchase within a special area is limited to 320 acres in the Eastern and 640 acres in the two other divisions, and in the Eastern Division carries no right to a conditional lease.

WHAT PERSONS MAY SELECT A CONDITIONAL

PURCHASE.

Any person of or over 16 may take up a residential conditional purchase; a married woman, living apart from her husband under a sentence of judicial separation, is similarly qualified, but other married women can only acquire such purchases under the will or intestacy of the late holder.

Every conditional purchase must be taken up solely in the interests of the applicant; any person who induces or makes use of any other person to defeat the law in this respect is liable to imprisonment with hard labour for not less than three months, nor more than two years.

PURCHASE MONEY, HOW PAID.

With the application for an ordinary conditional purchase a deposit of 2s. per acre and a survey fee (varying from £1 to £18 15s., according to the area of the land) must be made; thereafter no other payment is necessary for three years. At the end of the third year from date of application, an instalment of 1s. per acre is due, and thenceforward a similar instalment is payable annually.

Three months' grace are allowed for the payment of each instalment; the deposit and the first instalment are wholly applied in reduction of the debt-interest not being charged for the first three years-but out of each further instalment interest is taken, and the residue credited in reduction of the balance due.

Under the above system thirty instalments of 1s. per acre, together with the original deposit, are required to wipe out the debt; but the holder may, after obtaining a certificate from the local Land Board showing that he has fulfilled his conditions, pay off two or more instalments, or the whole of the balance at once.

On a conditional purchase, within a special area, a deposit of £10 per cent. and annual instalments, each £5 per cent. of the price of the land, are required.

HOW TO TAKE UP A CONDITIONAL PURCHASE.

Unless the land has been measured, a corner of it should be marked, and application made to the local Land Agent, with the instalment and survey fee abovementioned; the application should describe the position of the land, state whether it has been measured, and specify the nature and position of any improvements.

A formal declaration to the effect that the applicant is legally qualified to apply must also be made; the boundaries should run N., S., E., and W., and the land should form a square or a rectangle, not more than twice as long as it is wide; if the land has a frontage (such as a river, etc.) the length of the frontage must not be more than half the depth of the block.

If the conditional purchase is a non-residential one, a deposit of 4s. per acre must be made.

CONDITION OF RESIDENCE.

Residence for a term of ten years from the date of the application is essential; but, though the applicant may enter into residence immediately, he is not required to do so until his application has been confirmed by the Land Board, and even then he has three months' grace in which to do so.

"Residence is defined by statute as continuous and bonâ fide living on the land as the holder's usual home without any other habitual residence."

A separate condition of residence attaches to every additional conditional purchase (or conditional lease), but an original conditional purchase and any additional conditional purchases of the same series are treated as one holding, so that no alteration of the original place of residence is necessary; and further the condition of residence attached to an additional conditional purchase is waived so long as the additional conditional purchase is held by the same person who applied for the original conditional purchase; but this waiver does not apply if the holder has previously taken up or is the owner under conditional purchase (or conditional lease) of 1,280 acres in the Eastern Division, 2,560 acres in the Central Division, or 1,920 acres partly in two or more divisions.

Though the holder of the additional conditional purchase (or conditional lease) is not identical with the original selector, yet if he has, prior to taking up the additional area, been continuously resident on the earlier selections, his previous term of residence will be calculated in reduction of the new term, but in no case will he be allowed for more than five years.

Where a parent and child hold land under conditional purchase (or conditional lease) adjoining each other, the child may continue to reside with the parent until the age of 21 in case of a male, or until the age of 24 in the case of a female.

In case of a bachelor and a spinster holding incomplete conditional purchases, and marrying before the completion of the term of residence, they may reside for the balance of the term on either one of the holdings.

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The condition of residence may be suspended by the local Land Board for a definite period in case of illness, drought, or other sufficient cause; and in case of the death or lunacy of the holder of a conditional purchase before completion of the aforesaid condition, the condition will be suspended while such purchase is held by his representatives.

CONDITION OF FENCING OR IMPROVEMENTS.

Land held under conditional purchase (or conditional lease) must be fenced in within three years from the date of confirmation; the selector may, however, dispense with fencing provided he effects substantial improvements to the value of 6s. per acre within the first three years after confirmation, and increases their value up to 10s. per acre within the next two

years.

But the expenditure need not exceed £384 within the first, nor £640 within the second term; i.e., no greater expenditure is necessary on 2,560 acres in the Central than on 1,280 acres in the Eastern Division.

The local Land Board may extend the period allowed for fencing in any event, and in case of illness, etc., may suspend this condition or that of improvements for a period not exceeding six months.

SUSPENSION OF PAYMENTS, REDUCTION OF

INSTALMENTS, ETC.

The holder of a conditional purchase may apply to the Minister for Lands for permission to suspend the payment of any annual instalment; in such case the interest alone is payable, or may itself remain unpaid and be added to the original balance due; during suspension of payment the holder must reside on the land.