VPRS 13096 Register of Agricultural Lands Proclaimed for Selection, Hamilton District, Land Act 1862

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.Under Section 7 of the Amending Land Act 1865, persons who had already taken leases under the Land Act 1862 under Sections 23 and 24 and Sections 33 and 34, where the transactions were incomplete or the term of the lease had not expired were allowed, under the Amending Land Act, an extension of time of twelve months.This series is probably either a register as defined by the Act or was created and maintained to record the details of selections made and the administrative decisions and actions taken subsequent to selections.Identified are the place of proclamation and the parish with the details of the sections, allotments and subdivisions available for selection. The date and time of the application were given with the names and addresses of purchasers and lessees and the amount paid for the land purchased. Details were also given of the extent of purchased land and of leasehold land and the amounts of rent to be paid for the latter. It must be noted that land might have been proclaimed as open for selection but was not necessarily selected.Details of lessees were entered into a Register of Lessees (see VPRS 13267/P1 and VPRS 13268/P1).VPRS 13096/P1 was previously registered as Unit 3 of VPRS 1284/P Agricultural Lands for Selection, Land Act 1862.