second year for each acre. The holder of a mining license, or other holder on approved application, might obtain a mining lease for any period, not exceeding 10 years, at an annual rent of 8 shillings an acre.
The last great change in the Land Regulations was commenced in 1871. To this some amendments were made in 1873, also in 1874, and these were supplemented in 1875 by further regulations as to free grants to immigrants and by timber licenses, an epitome of which will be found at the end of this section. The results have been most satisfactory, as the following comparison will show. By the Census papers of 1870 it appears that the occupied lands of the Colony were thus distributed to that year:—
| Grants. | Acres. | |
| In occupancy | 17 | 511½ |
| In fee simple | 443 | 1,200,132½ |
| In do. by purchase, 1868-9 | 2,823 | 253,464¼ |
| Total | 3,283 | 1,454,108¼ |
Lands held under lease from the Crown:—
| Class A | 476,624 |
| Class B | 4,745,918 |
| Class C | 689,400 |
| Tillage | 89,108 |
| North (free) | 4,059,000 |
| East (free) | 100,000 |
| Mining | 260 |
| 15,160,310 |
In the year 1870 the land sold amounted to 358,875 acres, or 105,411 acres more than in the years 1868-9 together, and the amount of acres held in fee simple had increased to
