VPRS 15615 Mortgages and Agreements to Let and Hire

This series consists of discharged mortgages and completed contracts for the let and hire of tools and equipment entered into by closer and soldier settlers. Mortgages had to be registered with the Registrar-General (the Titles Office). These examples give the format of the documents and their terms and conditions, details of the settler entering into the agreement and the terms of the actual agreement. Numbers on the mortgages refer to the summary records in VPRS 11922 Register of Securities, Discharged Soldiers Settlement Acts and VPRS 11923 Register of Securities under the Closer Settlement Acts. Further details relating to the letting and hiring activities may be found in VPRS 11921 Register of Agreements to Let and Hire, Closer and Soldier Settlement Acts; Securities Taken by the Board of Land and Works Bushfire Advances 1926 and Cultivation Advances Act 1927.Tenants on closer settlement or soldier settlement land lots were able to lease the land for at first a period of six years with residence and improvements conditions. The terms required the lessee to fence the land, destroy vermin and noxious weeds and some leases required the tenant to erect a dwelling on the land within one year. After six years, lessees could mortgage, transfer or sub-let their land. They could also apply for a Crown Grant to purchase the land if the balance of the purchase monies had been paid.Both the Closer Settlement Acts and the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1917 (and its successors) allowed for the payment of advances to settlers to allow for the erection of buildings, for fencing, for the purchase of implements and stock and for other defined purposes. The amount able to be obtained and the terms of repayment were set forth in the Acts with the Board (or Commission) able to take a lien or mortgage or other security to ensure repayment of the advance.Under Section 5 of the Closer Settlement Act 1918 (applicable to both closer and discharged soldier settlers, the Closer Settlement Board (from 1933 the Commission) was able to purchase tools, equipment and other farm necessities. It was then able to rent or hire them to settlers as the need arose.