VPRS 14386 Register of Lessees, Mallee Lands, Section 6 Mallee Lands Act 1896

All licenses for the occupation of Crown lands and leases of Crown lands required the payment of rent in amounts and at intervals as stated by legislation or regulations made under the authority of legislation. Rents could be paid either by post or personally to the Melbourne office of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey (VA 538) or to local Receivers and Paymasters as designated for each parish and Land District (subsequent to the formation of the Occupation Branch in c 1874). Receivers and Paymasters were often local Clerks of Courts.Notifications of rents due at a particular date were circulated by notice or by lists published in the Government Gazette. The latter allowed local officers to be aware of the rents due in their areas. When the rents were paid to these officers, the payments were recorded in the local records and returns forwarded to the Department. Examples of these records may be seen in VPRS 809 Returns of Pastoral Rents Received. At the Occupation Branch, clerks (the rent rollers) were employed whose sole duties was the updating and maintenance of the rent rolls and preparation of certificates documenting payments where these were to be credited against the purchase price of land. Originally from about 1877, a rent roll clerk was attached to each District Land Office within the Occupation Branch.In the Mallee Division of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey, the term Registers of Lessees continued to be used to record the payment of rents . Details given in the registers of lessees are the name of the lessee, the details of the location and size of the land, details of the payments of fees and of vermin and fencing rates and of the date and amount of regular periodic payments of rent. Remarks include details of subsequent purchase of the land, of any transfers of leases to other holders, of the issue of agricultural allotment leases and the subsequent payments made by those persons, any cancellation or revocation or instances of abandonment of the land by the occupier.Registers of Lessees, like registers of applications, were arranged according to sections of a specific Land Act. For major provisions such as Sections 15 to 17 of the Mallee Pastoral Leases Act 1883 specific registers of lessees were used.Section 6 (1) of thre Mallee Lands Act 1896 stated that lands in the Mallee Country or Mallee Border previously held under lease were also to be available for occupation as agricultural allotments. These allotments had been legislated for in the Mallee Act 1889 with 320 acres being able to be selected as an agricultural allotment under the terms and conditions set out in the Part III of the Land Act 1884.VPRS 14386 / P1 was previously registered as Unit 4 of VPRS 1304 / P Register of Leases - Mallee Allotments.