87

A.—4,

4 By sale for a fixed price, on payment distributed over a term of years, with conditions of occupation. 5. By auction with an upset price on payment distributed over a term of years, with conditions of occupation. 6. By lease or license for a term of years. 7 By lease or license for a term of years with pre-emptive right of purchase. 8. By license terminable on the sale of the land. 9. By license for grazing in commonage. All the above modes of dealing with the lands are found in the colonies, and several of them in each colony The system of selling land upon deferred-payment with conditions of occupation has now been adopted in all the Australian Colonies. In some cases it applies to all the lands of the colony with the exception of certain areas, generally in the neighbourhood of towns, in others it applies only to areas specially set apart for the purpose.- The conditions of occupation and improvement are various, and the periods within which the payment is completed are widely different. But it is impossible not to observe a gradual tendency, with each alteration of the law, to lengthen the period of payment, and to relax the conditions of occupation and improvement; nor can we fail to notice, that, although in all cases forfeiture is the penalty for failure to comply with the conditions, or to pay the annual instalments, it is practically very difficult to enforce the penalty, and when labour and capital have been expended on the section, impossible. The system of selling for cash is also in force, but almost universally, except in New Zealand, by public auction sales for a fixed price are mostly confined to cases where land has been put up to atiction and has failed to find a purchaser, or where the buyer has failed to complete his purchase. The conditions on which, and the rents at which, land is occupied under lease or license for pastoral purposes, are as various as in the case of sales, and the natural tendency, as the country becomes occupied and land is required for settlement, is to raise the rents and to diminish the size of the runs. The same diversity of practice is displayed in the methods of collecting and accounting for the land revenue in each colony IX. Of Railways. In New South Wales the railways have been constructed, and are managed under the Railways Act of 1858. The Act provides for its administration by a Commissioner of Railways, who is a permanent officer of the Government, holding office at pleasure. He is constituted a corporation sole, and in him is vested all the property, real and personal, in connection with railways. His administration would appear from the wording of the Act to be entirely independent, subject only to the Governor in Council and to regulations made by the Governor in Council. Practically, he is subject to the Minister of Public Works, although the Act makes no mention of such subordination, but, on the contrary, seems to give the Commissioner statutable powers independent of all ministerial control. The plans and designs of all railways atithorized by Parliament to be constructed are first approved by the Governor in Council, and are then carried out by the Commissioner He conducts all transactions for the purchase of lands required, and for the payment of compensation, and the whole engineering staff is under his official control. To him are paid all the proceeds of the lines, and by him, or by the Treasury upon his certificate, are paid all the expenses of the railways, whether upon capital or upon working account. There are two principal branches or sub-offices in the Commissioner's Department —the Railway Accountant's Office, and the Railway Traffic Audit Office. Attached to the Accountant's Office, and subordinate to the Accountant, is the Cashier, through whose hands pass all the receipts, and by whom all payments are made. All the lines in New South Wales connect with Sydney, except the northern

New South "Wales.