Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/70

. The only drawback to such an expectation is the nature of the tenure by which they hold their lands, which, in all probability, will shortly be changed. Up to the present moment the nature of this tenure has been divided under three heads, to meet a like number of districts in the colony, denominated respectively as the settled, intermediate, and unsettled.

The settled districts of the colony comprehend twenty-one counties, which were occupied and proclaimed in 1848. The intermediate districts comprehend the lands adjoining the above with almost the whole of that extensive tract known as Gipp's Land, already alluded to. The unsettled form the remainder. Leases for the first class are only issued from year to year, the rent fixed for each several run of land being proportioned according to the number of sheep or equivalent number of cattle it is estimated to be capable of feeding,—each run to contain 4000 sheep, or an equivalent number of cattle, at an annual rent of £10, increasing according to stock. Any portion of these runs can be put up for public sale and entered upon on the expiration of the lease.

Upon the same terms and conditions, runs on the intermediate lands are also leased for a term not exceeding eight years, during the continuance of which lease the lands, or any portion thereof, may be purchased by the lessee, restricted, however, to certain limits, and not less than 160 acres could be