Page:Canterbury Papers.djvu/50

42  No block of Rural Land can be purchased of a less size than 50 acres; but there is no maximum limit to the quantity of Rural Land which a purchaser may obtain, either in one or several blocks.

 The extent of a town allotment in the capital will be one half-acre, and in the other towns one-quarter of an acre.

 The sum to be paid for Rural Land is 3l. per acre, or 150l. per section of 50 acres, and the purchase of the surface will include in every case coal and all other minerals not reserved by the Crown, and lying underneath the section purchased.

 The sum to be paid for a half-acre allotment in the capital will be 24l., except as regards the half-acre allotments received by the first body of colonists, according to the provision of Clause 18; and the sum to be paid for a quarter-acre allotment in other towns will be 12l.; but the latter will not be offered for sale until after the 30th April, 1850.

 It is intended that a block (of at least 1,000,000 acres) shall be trigonometricaily and topographically surveyed, and thrown open to purchasers for selection; but as so extensive a survey must be subject to delay from various causes, which it is impossible to foresee, the Association can only pledge itself that its best endeavours shall be used to lay open as large a portion as possible for selection by the first body of colonists.

 The first body of colonists will be composed of such persons as may become purchasers of Land, to an extent not exceeding 101,000 acres, on or before the 30th of April, 1850.

 Purchasers of Land in the Canterbury settlement shall obtain the priority of choice of lots, according to the order of application at the Land-office in the Colony; but, inasmuch as inconvenience may arise from two or more persons applying, among the first body of colonists, at the same time for the same piece of land, the priority of choice, in such cases, shall be decided according to the number of the land order held by the applicant corresponding to the number on a registered list of purchasers, as hereinafter mentioned.

 Applications for the purchase of Land shall be made by letters in a printed form, to be supplied by the Association.

 All such letters shall be opened on a fixed day, in the presence of the applicants and the Committee of the Association.

 The order of opening the letters of application will determine the order in which the names of the applicants will be entered on a registered list, and each applicant will receive a land order, the number of which will correspond with his number on the registered list.

 All selections by the first body of colonists must be made within eight months after the registered list shall have been made up in the manner before mentioned, as after that period the first body of colonists will have no priority of choice over other purchasers.

 No applications from holders of land orders will be received at the Land-office, in the Colony, till the expiration of two months after the arrival of the first vessel chartered or selected by the Association, with any of the first body of colonists on board.

 Every section of Rural Land must be selected of a rectangular form, so far as circumstances and the natural features of the country will admit.

 Every section fronting upon a river, road, lake, lagoon, or coast, must be of a depth from the front of at least half a mile.

 Every section not fronting upon a river, road, lake, lagoon, or coast, must be not less than 300 yards in width, and not less than half a mile distant from a river, road, lake, lagoon, or coast,

<li> Every person forming one of the first body of colonists will be entitled to receive two land orders in respect of each sum of 150l. paid; the one for a Rural Section of 50 acres, the other for an allotment of half an acre in the capital (Christchurch), which will contain, besides streets, and other reserves for public purposes, not less than 1,000 acres of Land for private property.

<li> The quantity of Land purchased by the first body of colonists shall not exceed 101,000 acres. </ol>