VPRS 13922 Register of Leases to Selectors Under Section 12 of the Act 237 (Amending Land Act 1865)

Section 12 of the Amending Land Act 1865 allowed persons to make application for the outright purchase or selection or for a lease of land in declared, surveyed and proclaimed agricultural areas for the purposes of residence and cultivation. The lease could be granted for a term of seven years at a rent of two shillings per acre per annum with the lease to be executed within three months of application. Rent was to be paid half-yearly with a half-years rent in advance. The lessee was to reside upon the land for at least three years and make improvements to it. If these terms were met, after that three years, there was a right of purchase of the land at the price of one pound per acre. Allotments, as determined by the Board of Land and Works, were to be between 40 and 640 acres with no individual being able to select more than 640 acres per year.Applications were to be made in the form set down in the Schedules to the Act in person at a land office and be accompanied by a half-years rent in advance. The priority of the order of applications was to be determined by lot. Any refusal of an application was to be notified within thirty days in the Government Gazette with the reasons for refusal or disallowance being given.This series provides a record of applications for that lease as maintained at the central office of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey (VA 538). Details in this Register are when and where the land was selected (the place and date of selection as it had to be made at a local office), the reference (see Index No 2 within the volume), the names of grantees or lessees, the parish, a description of the allotment and its area, the dates of leases and when deeds were submitted for signature.Listings of the leases and the periodical payments made by lessees may be found in Registers of Lessees Section 12 Amending Land Act 1865 arranged by geographical location.