The Short Title of this Act is “The Land for Settlements Amendment Act, 1895,” and it shall be read with the principal Act.

The Governor may from time to time appoint a fit person to be a Land Purchase Inspector, whose duties shall be to inspect and report to the Minister upon all lands proposed to be acquired under the principal Act, and to perform such other functions as the Governor from time to time directs.

The Land Purchase Inspector—

The person holding office as Land Purchase Inspector at the time of the passing of this Act shall be deemed to be appointed under this Act.

In addition to the persons named in section three of the principal Act, the following persons shall be members of the Board of Land Purchase Commissioners, that is to say—

The Land Purchase Inspector shall be the Chairman of the Board, and at all meetings of the Board three members shall form a quorum.

Section three aforesaid is hereby modified and amended in so far as it conflicts with this Act.

In any case where land hereafter acquired from any person under the principal Act contains a homestead, such person may obtain a lease in perpetuity of the homestead, and land surrounding it, not exceeding in all six hundred and forty acres, as he may select:

Provided—

That be makes application to the Land Board in writing within fourteen days after the land becomes vested in Her Majesty;

That in such application be sets forth by description and plan the area so selected;

That the Land Board approves of the application, and is satisfied that the grant of the lease will not prejudicially affect the settlement of the residue of the land so acquired.

Upon all the foregoing conditions being complied with, such person shall be entitled to a lease in perpetuity of the area so selected, or of such less area as may be agreed on between him and the Land Board, at a yearly rental at the rate of five pounds per centum on the capital value of the land (including therein all buildings and improvements), subject to the conditions of the Land Act relating to leases in perpetuity, except in so far as such conditions are modified by this Act, and subject also to such conditions as to cultivation of land, and insurance, maintenance, and repair of buildings and otherwise, as the Governor prescribes.

Such capital value shall be fixed in manner prescribed by section thirty of the principal Act for fixing the rental (meaning thereby the yearly rental) of land acquired and disposed of under that Act.

The Land Board is hereby empowered to deal with such application as aforesaid, and to issue a lease in perpetuity accordingly, without previously notifying the land as open for application, anything in “The Land Act, 1892,” or the principal Act to the contrary notwithstanding.

The foregoing provisions of this Act relating to the grant of leases in perpetuity shall extend and apply to land already acquired but not disposed of by the Crown under the principal Act, and for the purposes of this section the application referred to in the first proviso to section four hereof may be made at any time within twenty-eight days after the passing of this Act, but not later.

In any case where land is taken compulsorily from two persons who, for a period of two years next prior to any direction by the Minister for negotiation under section four of the principal Act, have been carrying on business on such land as farmers in copartnership, each partner, whose undivided share of such land exceeds the prescribed maximum, shall have the right to retain any area not exceeding the prescribed maximum in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as if such share had been owned by him in severalty.

In addition to the conditions specified in subsections (a) and (b) of section nineteen of the principal Act as those subject to which the land in that section referred to may be occupied, the following further condition is hereby prescribed, that is to say,—

In any cases where unformed and unused road-lines intersect any land acquired under the principal Act, and are not suitable to the subdivision of the land, such road-lines may be closed by Gazette notice, and thereafter may be dealt with as part of the land which they intersect: Provided that the local authority of the district in which such road-lines are situate consents to the closing thereof: Provided also that any person who may be injuriously affected by the closing of any such road may object in terms of “The Public Works, Act, 1894.”

The Land Board is empowered to deal with any small area of Crown lands lying within or immediately adjacent to any land acquired under the principal Act in the same manner as such land is dealt with thereunder.