MODE OF APPLICATION—DETERMINATION OF RENT, ETC.

Any person making application for an exclusive license, shall set forth in his application a description, as near as may be, of the land required, and shall, before such application can be received, deposit and pay the sum of £50 to the Receiver of Land Revenue.

Within ten days after the receipt of any such application, the Waste Land Board shall determine whether the application is fit to be granted, and if it shall decide in the negative, then the deposit shall be forthwith returned to the applicant without deduction; but if it shall decide conditionally to grant the application, then the Chief Surveyor shall, within one month, cause the outer boundary of the land so applied for to be cut, and a ranger shall go over the land, and shall report to the Waste Land Board the quality of the timber standing upon it, and within 60 days after the first application, the Waste Land Board shall decide on the price per acre at which it will grant the exclusive right to cut the timber; such price not to be less than £1, nor more than £2 per acre in the whole, and the price so fixed shall be intimated to the applicant by a notice which shall be exhibited in the Land Office.

If the applicant shall object to the price so fixed, then he may withdraw his application, and the deposit paid in shall be returned to him after deducting therefrom the cost of cutting the boundary line and £5 for the expenses of examination, etc.

If there shall be more than one applicant for the same piece of forest land, and after the minimum value of the timber thereon has been fixed by the Waste Land Board more than one of the applicants shall be willing to take it at that value, then the license shall be put up to auction between such applicants, and the value fixed by the Waste Land Board shall be the upset price, and the license shall be granted to whichever of the applicants shall be the highest bidder, and the deposits paid by the other applicants shall be returned to them without deduction.

The expense of cutting the boundary lines, together with £10 for the cost of examining the forest, &c., shall be charged against the deposit paid in by the successful applicant, and the balance, if any, of such deposit shall be allowed in account out of the payment of the first instalment of rent.

The value fixed on the timber by the Waste Land Board, or if put up to auction the price at which it shall be knocked down to the highest bidder shall be divided into three equal instalments, and the first instalment shall be paid within one month after the determination of its amount by the Board, or after the auction, if there shall have been more than one applicant, and a license shall be issued for the period of the year which may remain before the 31st December.

On the 31st of December, or within one month thereafter, the second instalment of rent shall be paid, and on its due payment, and on proof of the due performance of the other conditions, provided a new license for one year will be issued subject to a similar payment at its expiration; but no license will be renewable beyond the period of two years after the 31st of December next ensuing after the granting of the first license.

Before the issue of any renewed license the lessee shall produce a certificate from the Ranger or other person duly approved by the Waste Land Board on that behalf—

1. That all tops of felled trees and other obstructions, and all piles of combustible material arising from or produced by the felling of timber have been burned, or otherwise effectually removed.

2. That no trees or saplings not required for the purposes of the mill have been injured or destroyed by the act, or by the neglect of the lessee or his servants.

3. That the land has not been used by the lessee for other purposes than for the sawing and working up of the timber, and that no unnecessary injury has been done to the land.

And if it shall appear that these Regulations have not been complied with; or that any wrongful acts have been done by the lessee, then the Waste Land Board shall appoint a valuator to ascertain and assess the amount of damage which the land or the forest, or any part thereof, may have sustained by such wrongful acts, and no new license shall be granted until the amount of damage so assessed shall have been paid, in addition to the sum due by way of rent.

WALTER H. PEARSON,
Chief Commissioner.