Government Red Tape For Aliens

THE HOMESTEAD REGULATIONS

                                 Persons entitled to select homesteads

1.   Any person being a natural born or naturalised subject of Her Majesty, who is the head of a family, or is twenty-one or more years of age, is entitled to select a homestead or any person owning and residing on land may enter other land lying contiguous to said land which shall not with the land already owned and occupied exceed 160 acres.

                               Persons not entitled to select homesteads

2.   No married woman, who has not obtained a decree for judicial separation, or an order binding in Queensland, protecting her separate property, is entitled to select a homestead. 

                                Assisted Immigrants entitled after three years residence in the Colony

       Any person arriving hereafter in the colony, either wholly or in part, at the public expense, will not be entitled to select homestead until he has lived three years continuously in the colony. 

                            Lands that have been offered for sale or that
                              have been withdrawn are not open to selection as homesteads

3.   Selectors of homesteads are not entitled to select any lands that have been offered for sale, or that have been withdrawn from general selection, to be surveyed and offered at auction. 

                                             Areas of Homesteads

4.   Selections by homestead lessees must be in one block, and are not to exceed 80 acres of agricultural, or 160 acres of pastoral lands. 

                                        Roads and permanent water

       Applications will be subject to regulation concerning survey, roads, and prevention of monopoly of permanent water. 

                            Applications may include two classes of land

5.   Selectors of homesteads may include the two classes of agricultural and pastoral land in their applications, provided the area of each is in proportion to the total area allowed for each class.

                                      Improvements must be paid for

6.   Where there are improvements on the land selected as a homestead, the selector must state in his application the nature of them, and his estimate of their value, and at the same time pay that amount to the land agent.  If on valuation, any further sum is awarded, it must be paid within one month after date of award.

                                Rent payable on Homestead Selections

7.   The rent payable on homestead selections id 9d. per acre on agricultural land, and 6d. per acre on first and second-class pastoral land, paid yearly in advance for five years from date of entry. 

                                Payment of rent, and penalty for default

8.   The first year's rent on homestead selections must be paid either in cash or land orders at the time of making the application.  The second and all subsequent annual rents must be paid to the land agent, in cash, on or before the 31st March in each year; in default of such payment the lease will be forfeited, and the land selected, and all improvements on it, will revert to the Crown. 

                                         Forfeiture may be defeated

9.   The lessee may defeat forfeiture for non-payment of rent by paying to the land agent in cash, within 90 days of the day on which the rent has fallen due, a sum equal to the annual rent, with one-fourth added as a penalty.  But if the rent and penalty be not paid within such 90 days, the lease will be absolutely forfeited, and the lessee, or any person claiming under him, will be deemed a trespasser upon Crown lands, and liable to be removed therefrom. 

                                 Conditions to be fulfilled before Crown grant is issued

10.  The lessee or his family must have resided five years continuously on the land, and cultivated one-tenth part of it; or in addition to residence as aforesaid, he must have fenced in the land with a good and substantial fence during the time of five years immediately succeeding the date of his application to enter on each land.  At the expiration of five years, or at any time within two years thereafter, upon proving to the satisfaction of the commissioner of the district, by two credible witnesses, that the above conditions have been complied with, and making an affidavit that no part of said land has been alienated, the lessee will be entitled to a Crown grant. 

                                        May purchase at upset price

11.  The lessee may at any time after two years and before the expiration of five years obtain a Crown Grant, by paying the upset price for the quantity of land taken up, and making proof as before mentioned of residence and cultivation of one-tenth part. 

                             Lessee dying before obtaining Crown Grant

12.  If the lessee die before obtaining the Crown Grant, his widow, or in the case of her death, his heirs, or devisees, or in case of a widow being the lessee, her heirs or devisees, on proving the fulfilment of the conditions as above may obtain the Crown Grant.

 Parents dying and leaving an infant or children
under twenty-one years of age

       If both father and mother die leaving an infant child or children under 21 years of age, such child or children shall have a right to the land, and the executors, administrators or guardians may at any time after the death of the surviving parent sell said lands for the benefit of said infants, but for no other purpose, and the purchaser shall acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and be entitled to the Crown Grant on payment of the deed fees. 

                                      Homesteads not liable for debt

13.  Homesteads acquired under the Act of 1868, are not in any case liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the Crown Grant thereof. 

                             Mode of proceeding to obtain a homestead

14.  Having elected a site for a homestead within the limits appointed by Government as open for selection, make application to the land agent of the district, and fill in the undermentioned form in triplicate, which must then be declared before a magistrate, and pay the first year's rent in land orders or cash, and the survey fee in cash. 

       Describe the area and boundaries, and write your name in the Application Book.  Take care to attend personally, or by an authorised agent, the next sitting of the Commissioner (which is advertised in the local paper), otherwise your application will be dismissed until your name appears again in the book in order. 

                                 If land is not surveyed in three months fees returned

15.  If the land is not surveyed within three months of date of application, the applicant is at liberty to have it surveyed by a licensed surveyor, and the survey fees paid by him will be returned.

                                                             L

                           APPLICATION TO SELECT A HOMESTEAD

Received this                        day of                       186   , at    o'clock                                 Land Agent,           District of                            , I                                , do hereby state my desire to become the Lessee of the Crown Lands described in the Schedule annexed, which are now open to selection without competition, as a "Homestead," under the provisions of the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1868, and I hereby tender the sum of                                           pounds            shillings and              pence as the first year's rent, together with the survey fee*      And I do solemnly declare that I am§             that I apply for such portion on my own behalf, and for my own exclusive use and benefit, and not as Agent or Trustee for any person whatever; that I have not on any former occasion exercised my right to select a "Homestead" under the Act, and that I apply for the purpose of actual settlement for cultivation; that I did not arrive in this colony after the 1st March 1868, at the public expense, either wholly or in part within three years; and I further declare that I have not entered into any agreement to sell, demise, mortgage the said portion.

 Declared before me                   }

          at                  this      }   (Signature)

        day of         1868.        }

                                          J.P.

                                                                                                             £.  s.  d.

Agricultural land         Acre at 9d.

Pastoral land ....          at 6d.

Survey fee   ....           ....

                                                                                                       __________

    Total area                                                                                    __________

* Where there are improvements insert the intimated value.

§ Of the age of twenty-one years or the head of a family i.e. as the case may be.

Back