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4.—Boundaries of Land to be Defined.

Persons intending to apply for a lease of auriferous Crown Lands shall previous to making application as hereinafter directed, erect, or cause to be erected, at each angle of the land proposed to be leased, a post three inches square, and standing at least three feet in height above the surface of the ground, and such posts shall be maintained at the expense of the applicant until the application shall have been granted or refused by the Governor’s Delegate, and the applicant shall post and maintain a board not less than nine inches square on each corner post with the words “Applied for a lease,” the name and address of the applicant, the number of acres applied for, and the date of application.

5.—Mode of Application.

Application shall be made in the form in the Schedule hereto annexed marked A, and shall be addressed in duplicate to the Warden of the Gold Fields District within which the land so applied for is situated.

6.—Applicant to Make a Deposit.

At the time of applying for such lease the applicant must deposit with the Warden the sum of twenty pounds (£20), as a guarantee for the payment of any expenses which may be incurred by reason of the survey of the land applied for, or by reason of any objection to such application being allowed; and such Warden shall give to the applicant a receipt therefor in the form in the Schedule hereto annexed marked B, and any surplus which may remain over such expenses shall be returned to the applicant.

7.—Official Survey.

Upon receipt of such application and deposit, the Warden aforesaid shall as soon as may be direct a Surveyor to proceed to the land applied for, and to survey the same, and to report as to the area, boundaries, and description thereof, the character of the ground, the likelihood of any river, creek, or permanent water springs, or artificial reservoir, which may be included within the boundaries of the said land, being required for, or the feasibility of the same being applied to, public purposes, or for the use of the miners of the district generally, and also as to any claims to prior occupancy which shall come to his knowledge, enquiry as to which it shall be his duty to make while making the said survey, and to furnish a plan of such land on a scale of sixteen inches to the mile, together with a tracing of so much of the general map of the district as will be sufficient to connect the particular area applied for, with at least one trigonometrical station, or in the absence of any such, with some fixed point.

8.—Surveyor to Post Notices.

The Surveyor shall at the time of making the survey hereinbefore directed, place a notice in the form in the Schedule hereto annexed and marked C, in some conspicuous place on the ground, and shall post a copy of such notice on the outside of the Warden’s office, and shall advertise the same three times at least in one of the local papers.

9.—Priority of Application.

In the event of more than one application being made for the same land or any part thereof, such one of such applications as shall have been first left with the Warden shall be first considered, and in case any two or more of such applications shall be left with the Warden at the same time, the Warden shall decide the right of priority by lot.

10.—Objectors to Give Notice.

Any persons objecting to the issue of a lease so applied for shall, within twenty-one days after the posting of the notice by the Surveyor, forward to the Warden full notice of all such objections, and shall (except in cases of encroachment) deposit the sum of ten pounds (£10), and such Warden shall give to the person making such deposit a receipt in the form in the Schedule annexed marked D, as security for the due prosecution of his objections, and in satisfaction of any expenses to which the applicant may be put by such objections if disallowed; and if such objections should not be prosecuted or should fail, so much of such deposit shall be handed over to the applicant as may be necessary to repay the expenses of such applicant, and the balance (if any) shall be refunded to the person so objecting.

11.—Mode of Objection.

When application shall have been made for a lease of any land, to the whole or any part of which any person other than the applicant shall claim to be entitled, by virtue of prior occupation under a Miner’s Right or Business License, the objection to the granting of such lease may be heard by the Warden in the same way as a case of encroachment under the Gold Fields Act, and such Warden shall immediately report the hearing of any such objection, and the decision arrived at therein to the Governor’s Delegate.

12.—Enquiry into Application.

After the expiration of twenty-one days