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In the village and small-farm settlements a man by securing five, ten, or twenty acres need never be a day idle, for when he is not employed outside in the district he has the most delightful of all work in working with his family at home in improving their own place. These village communities ought to become the nurseries of a thrifty, industrious population. With the object of further encouraging this class of settlement and checking the too-great tendency to congregate in towns a set of regulations has been issued giving assistance in the form of loans to build a dwelling and clear the ground, the land and money advanced being capitalized, and an annual rent of 5 per cent, payable on the whole. About 10,120 acres in 556 sections, situated in groups throughout the settled districts of the colony, are now partly and very shortly will be wholly open for application on this system, which seems to have met a real want, for in the Pahiatua Village Special Settlement, opened for application on the 18th instant, for fifty-eight sections of about 670 acres offered there were seventysix applications covering forty-two sections. In the contested applications the married men had the preference. The forty-two successful applicants have taken up 580 acres, or an average of fourteen acres, the holdings ranging from five to twenty acres each. The Pahiatua Village Settlement is on a piece of excellent bush soil in the midst of a progressive district and close on the main road-line, about nine miles south from Woodville. These advantages no doubt have given this system a very good start, but it is also worthy of note that in the Seaward Bush, about two miles from Invercargill, fourteen applicants have taken up ten acres each, although the land has only been open for a few days. It will be the object of the department to keep up a supply of land on this system throughout the various districts of the colony. Homestead System. Thirty-five settlers on this system of free land have taken up 5,830 acres in the Land District of Auckland. A block of 2,988 acres has been open for application for some months in Southland, but as yet none eligible as selectors have made application. The Land Act permits of three thousand acres in each land district every year being set aside on the homestead system. Effect is about to be given to this in the Otago and Hawke's Bay Districts, and, with what is now open in Auckland, Westland, and Southland, an area of about 50,000 acres will be open for selection. Small Grazing-runs. In the Land Act Amendment Act of 1884 provision was made for small grazing-runs,. but, owing to certain defects in the Act, nothing was done until these were remedied in the Act of 1885. The main principle of the system as it now stands is an absolute lease for twenty-one years, with right of renewal for another twenty-one years, of an area not exceeding five thousand acres, the other terms being residence, and the effecting of improvements equal in value to four annual rents of the run during the first six years of the lease. After that there is no condition save the payment of the rent half-yearly. The tenancy gives full power to the lessee over the soil for crop or grazing as he may wish. At the end of the first term of twenty-one years two valuations are made, one of the land and one of the improvements, by two valuers, one selected by the tenant and one by the Government. The tenant has the offer of the run for the second twenty-one years at the rent of 2\ per cent, on the value of the land fixed by the valuers. Should he elect to retire from the run, the lease will then be offered for sale by public auction, burdened with the full valuation of improvements, which the incoming tenant must pay to the outgoing before being let into possession. In January last, the first land on this system was offered, when 65,250 acres, in runs in the Nenthorn and Strath-taieri Districts, Otago, were offered, when twenty-four runs, comprising 55,739 acres, were leased at Bjd. per acre, the upset price being 6d. Since then, more country has been offered on this system, not only in Otago, but in the Wellington and Hawke's Bay Districts, with the result for the colony of sixty-two small grazing-runs, covering 104,172 acres, being held on an aggregate rental of .£3,522 18s. lid., as follows : — No. of Total Total Annual Average Rent Runs. Area. Rent. per Acre. Hawke's Bay ... ... 6 ... 8,871 .-.. £147 7 3 ... 4d. Wellington ... ... 14 ... 11,637 ... 437 1 6 ... 9d. Otago ... ... 42 ... 83,664 ... 2,939 10 2 ... B|d. Total ... ... 62 104,172 ... £3,523 18 11 And there are now 127 runs, covering 241,414 acres, open for application. It is> believed that the small run-system will prove very suitable for the settlement of broken, hilly