settling them with Crown tenants has been an unqualified success, from the point of view of the tenants, the Government, and the colony.
As the land system stands at present, its outstanding features are State-ownership of the soil, perpetual tenancy to the occupier, and the restriction of the area that any man may hold, thus applying the principle of the land for the people and preventing the aggregation of large estates. No Crown tenant can hold more than 640 acres of first-class land or 2,000 of second-class land.
Besides the lease-in-perpetuity system, which is the only one allowed under the Land for Settlements Act, the Government offers tenants other systems, to meet the wants of different classes. As a rule, ordinary Crown land thrown open to “optional” selection is offered to the public under three tenures, from which the settler can make his choice. These three tenures are: Cash, lease with the right of purchase, and lease-in-perpetuity (999 years).
Most of the Crown land is taken up for 999 years. Nearly 2,000,000 acres have been leased under that tenure. The rentals are based on the value of the land when it is first disposed of. As no re-valuations are made, and as there is no increase in the rents, the holders of those leases-in-perpetuity are often extremely fortunate men. They have a tenure that is practically equal to the freehold from every point of view except the sentimental one. Like the freehold, the lease can be sold, subleased, mortgaged, and disposed of by will. Besides that, the improvements made by the tenant are secured to him if he forfeits or surrenders his lease. The values placed on Crown lands are low when they are leased, as the State seeks to encourage settlement rather than to raise revenue directly, and the leases have sometimes increased enormously in value in a few years.
Most of the Crown tenants went on to the land poor men; but many of those who took up leases-in-perpetuity with little or no capital twelve or fourteen years ago are now rich, mainly on account of the remarkably cheap rates at which they obtained their leases and the facilities given them by the Government.
