VPRS 5238 Register of Lessees, Horsham, Section 7 and Section 12 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.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. Leases also had to be approved by the Governor-in-Council.For the recording of the progressive payment of rents, a registers of lessees was created in Melbourne for each locality whre revenue was collected. Initially, these were based on the location of the offices of the Receivers of Revenue (a departmental officer or another designated Crown officer such as a Clerk of Courts). Lessees would pay rent to the local Receiver of Revenue convenient to their location, returns of payments would be forwarded to the office of the Department of Crown Lands and Survey in Melbourne where they would be recorded in the appropriate register of lessees. With the formation of the Occupation Branch and the conduct of business according to the District Land Offices established, these registers were then allocated to a specific District Land Office within the Occupation Branch. Records within these registers may be for properties which, after 1874, were located in parishes which had been allocated to different District Land Offices.This register recorded the date of the lease or its reference number (which may be either the lease number or an application number) the county and parish, the extent of the land being the allotment and section and area and for each year, the number of the report (regarding observance of the conditions of the lease) and the amount of rent to be paid in half-yearly instalments. A remarks column contains notations regarding the subsequent purchase of the land, the transfer to another lessee or to a section of the Land Act 1869 or any cancellation or revocation of the lease. These notations are often accompanied by a correspondence number or a reference to an entry in the Government Gazette.This series was previously titled Index to Agricultural Lands Leased and had been attributed to Horsham Courts.