The selector of an Agricultural Farm, who has obtained priority by undertaking to reside personally thereon during the first five years of the lease, must comply strictly with that undertaking, and is not allowed during such period to mortgage, transfer, or assign the holding.
After five years of the term have elapsed, the prescribed conditions of occupation and improvement having been duly performed, a deed of grant may be obtained on payment of the balance of the purchasing price and deed fees.
Perpetual Lease Selections.
Land proclaimed to be open for Agricultural Farm Selection may also be opened for Perpetual Lease Selection, and the latter mode may be conceded priority of application over the former. The rent for the first period of ten years of the lease is 1½ per cent. on the proclaimed purchasing price of the land for Agricultural Farm Selection. The rent for each succeeding period of ten years shall be determined by the Land Court. The same conditions of occupation and improvement as are prescribed for Agricultural Farms are attached to Perpetual Lease Selections, and, except as specially prescribed, the provisions relating to Agricultural Farms apply to them also. As the name implies, the selections are leases in perpetuity, and are not capable of being converted to freeholds.
Agricultural Homesteads.
Land open for selection as Agricultural Farms is not available for Agricultural Homesteads unless so proclaimed. The area allowed to be selected as an Agricultural Homestead varies with the value of the land, and is fixed by proclamation within the following limits, viz.:—160 acres in the case of land valued for Agricultural Farm Selection at not less than £1 an acre; 320 acres in the case of land valued at less than £1 but not less than 15s. an acre; and 640 acres in the case of land valued at less than 15s. an acre. The price for an Agricultural Homestead is 2s. 6d. an acre, the annual rent 3d. an acre, and the term ten years.
The land must be continuously occupied by the selector residing personally thereon.
Within five years from the issue of the license to occupy, or such extended time as the Land Court may allow, the selector must enclose the land with a good and substantial fence, or make substantial and permanent improvements on it equal in value to such fence. On the completion of the improvements the selector becomes entitled to a lease, which, however, is not negotiable in any way.
At any time after five years from the commencement of the term, on the selector proving that the conditions have been duly performed and that the sum expended in improvements on the land has been at the rate of 10s., 5s., or 2s. 6d. an acre respectively according to the value of the land, he may pay up the remaining rents so as to make his total payments equal to 2s. 6d. an acre, and obtain a deed of grant of the land in fee-simple. A deed fee must be paid.