A.—l

84

Tasmania,

The lands in Tasmania are now disposed of under the Lands Act of 1870, and are sold principally by auction. Private selections under the 24th section of the Act are not submitted to auction, but involve personal residence on the land selected. Under the latter section, the price is £1 an acre, increased by one-third as premium for the allowance of credit. Eightpence an acre is payable on the selection, Is. at the commencement of the second and third year, and 2s. of every year for twelve years afterwards. The whole payment being completed in fourteen years. In auction sales, if the purchaser claims credit, the terms are similarly onethird in addition to the auction price for premium on credit. One-eighth of the price is payable as deposit, and one-thirteenth of the balance every year afterwards till the whole is paid, the payments, as before, being complete in fourteen years. Auctions are held at Hobart and Launceston, and occasionally at country places, such as Latrobe and Emu Bay. la Hobart and Launceston a clerk from the Land Office attends the sale and takes the deposits, in country places the auctioneer takes the deposits himself. In the former case the clerk pays the money into the Treasurer's Account, and sends the Bank receipt to the Treasury In the latter the auctioneer sends a cheque to the Treasury for the amount he has received. In sales by auction the advertisements of the sections to be offered for sale are prepared in the Land Office at Hobart, and sent to the auctioneer, showing the upset price put on each section. The auction account sales show the price bid for each. Complete accounts are kept in the Land Office of the purchases under the system of credit. They occupy two folio volumes —one for the auction sales and sales under the 38th section (namely, of lands which, having been put up to auction and not having found a purchaser, are sold subsequently by private contract at the upset price), and one for lands selected under the 24th section. In these ledgers the sum paid by each purchaser in each year is entered in a separate column, the absence of an entry showing a default in the payment. As the Treasury notifies to the Land Office day by day all moneys received, and the ledgers are closely posted up, the amounts in default are readily perceived. Besides, as the period on which payments are due depends on the date of the purchase, the entries for each month are kept separate in the ledger, so that a list can be readily made out of the payments coming due in each month. All payments after the deposit are made to the Treasury direct. A separate ledger in a similar form is kept against the pastoral lessees. The Land Office sends out the notices calling on them to pay their rents when due, and the Treasurer notifies to the Land Office when the payments are made. No list of defaulters and no lists of the monthly payments coming due are published in Tasmania as in some other colonies. The numbers to be dealt with are far less numerous. It is supposed, although no accurate return exists, that about four thousand persons are still under outstanding engagements to the Crown for lands. Circulars are sent out monthly, calling on defaulters to meet their engagements, and it is stated that hitherto the current payments are made with very fair punctuality. In June last year a sale was made of all defaulting estates, and they were not numerous. Some allowance has had to be made during the last two years, owing to bad seasons, but the outstanding debt is not, on the whole, unreasonably large. In this colony, however, as elsewhere, the tendency has been to prolong the period of credit which, formerly extending only to eight years, is now fourteen.

New Zealand differs from all other colonies in the management of the Crown lands, owing to the fact that up to the year 1876 -the lands were disposed of under Acts passed by the Legislatures of the Provinces, into ten of which New Zealand was divided. In 1877 a general Act was passed, repealing all the Provincial

NewZealand.