APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM THE LAND COMMISSION OF 1886-87.
Appendix No. 1.
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QUESTIONS submitted by the Commissioners for the consideration and opinion of Landowners, Barristers, Solicitors, Surveyors, and others, regarding the sale and tenure of the land of the Colony, and other matters relating thereto, the answers to which were required for the information
of the Commissioners.
Questions.
1. Is your acquaintance with the land of the Colony an extensive one as Landowner, or Solicitor having the prepara. tion of Deeds relating to the land, or as Surveyor, or otherwise?
2. Where land is not granted to persons already in possession, or having an admitted claim to the grant of a Lease, it is put up to public auction on the application of an intending purchaser-such application and proposed sale being first approved by the Governor. An annual Crown Rent is fixed by the Surveyor General and the land is offered at the auction at an upset price, upon certain conditions, the highest bidder above the upset price being declared the purchaser for a term of 999 years if a Victoria Marine or Inland Lot, and for 75 years if of another class, and in any case subject to the payment of the fixed annual rental. Has any inconvenience in this mode of sale to the public by auction, on the application of indi- viduals, arisen or come to your knowledge? If so will you be good enough to state the nature of the inconvenience and your opinion thereon.
3. The purchaser at the auction signs a contract for purchase in the terms of a form previously advertised. Until recently the essence of the contract was that the purchaser would accept a Crown Lease in the usual form and execute a counterpart when called upon, and the Lease would thereupon issue; now, the building and other conditions are stated in the contract and the Lease is not granted until the conditions are complied with to the satisfaction of the Surveyor General. Has any inconvenience or hardship arisen, so far as you know, particularly with regard to the purchaser's dealing with or selling his contract to purchase before the Lease can be issued, or otherwise with regard to the stipulations of the contract? If so, what is the nature of the inconvenience or hardship, and your opinion thereon?
4. When the purchaser has complied with his conditions of purchase a Crown Lease is issued to him from the Land Office containing reservations and covenants, and your opinion is desired upon the following points as regards the effect of the Lease upon the Lessee or his Assignees and Successors in Title.
All earth, stones, and minerals are excepted and reserved from the grant, so that the lessee has left in him the surface only of his Lot, and the erections standing upon it for the term for which the Lease is granted. Can you say whether this reservation has ever been found appreciably injurious to the lessee in his occupation or dealings with the ground so granted, or that the effect of this reservation is of no moment to him?
5. The Crown, by the Lease, reserves the right of digging for, acquiring, and carrying away the excepted earth, stones, and minerals if required for public purposes, of course doing as little damage as possible to the lessee. Has this reservation any effect upon the value of property, or does it occasion any difficulty in its sale, or is it otherwise injurious to the lessee?
6. Is it generally believed by purchasers of property that the Crown would not exercise this right, and is it treated as a nullity and therefore of no effect?
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7. And with regard to the covenants to keep in repair as between Landlord and Tenant with power to the Surveyor General to view and serve notice of, and compel such repairs as he may consider necessary, are these covenants of use to the inhabitants generally in preventing dangerous decays, or are they deemed useless when the Building Laws in force in the Colony are carried into effect?
8. Certain noisome and offensive trades are prohibited by covenant in the Lease, unless carried on with licence. Do the lessees as a rule comply with this covenant, and do purchasers of property where these prohibited trades are carried on inquire whether a licence has been obtained before they complete their purchases or is no inquiry upon this subject made?
9. By Ordinance 10 of 1872, and the Rules under Ordinance 7 of 1883, provision is made in respect of noisome and offensive trades. Is it considered that the Police Regulations are sufficiently stringent without the necessity of the clause in
the Lease at all?
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