APPENDIX NO. 9.

South Australia.

Statement by the Surveyor General (Mr. E.M.Smith) on Government Surveys and Method of Dealing with Land.

                                                                                                               Division

The country it is desired to have settled is divided into counties and the counties into hundreds. Originally a hundred contained, approximately, 100 square miles, but now the areas vary considerably.

                                                                                                                Roads.

The direction of the roads is determined to a great extent by the railway sidings, ports, etc., and roads are then surveyed in the best practicable positions.

                                                                                                             Subdivision.

After survey of the roads plans showing these are sent to the Land Board, which body recommends subdivision into blocks. After survey of the blocks as recommended and approved detail with the description of the country is referred to the Land Board to fix the purchase money and rent. Members of the Board, however, always inspect the country and personally assess its value. The prices fixed by the Board are subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Crown Lands.

                                                                                                           Applications.

The lands are then advertised and applications are called for the blocks. All land is surveyed before it is offered for applications. After the date fixed for receiving the applications, times and places at which the Board will attend to take evidence from the applicants are published and each applicant has sent to him a copy of the advertisement. All persons enquiring for information as to the lands are furnished with plans and description of the blocks as soon as they are gazetted. Applicants can attend at any of the places at which the Board may be in order to give evidence in support of their applications. Evidence is given in open court, and any person present may challenge the statements made by any applicant.

                                                                                                           Allotment.

After taking the evidence the Board proceeds to make the allotment. It is astonishing how little dissatisfaction there is. There has been some lately as the Board has sometimes allotted blocks to persons with German names, although they may be the grandsons of men who came to Australia for conscientious reasons.

                                                                                                            Payments.

Under the conditions now in force and generally applicable to scrub lands, no payment is required from settlers for four years. From the commencement of the fifth year to the end of the tenth year 2 percent. per annum is charged on the purchase money. At the commencement of the eleventh year the purchaser commences to pay (if he takes the land on agreement with covenant to purchase) purchase money with interest at 4 percent. at the rate of £5 12s. 10d. per annum for every £100 of purchase money. If the land is allotted on perpetual lease the lessee pays interest at the rate of 4 percent. per annum on the purchase money. The rent on perpetual leases is fixed for all time. The settler can complete purchase of land held under agreement with covenant to purchase at the expiration of six years from the date of allotment if he so desires and has fulfilled the covenants of the agreement. The first instalment is purchase money only; in every subsequent instalment a proportion is credited each to interest and to purchase money, and as the settler makes payment, so the purchase money in each instalment increases and the interest decreases.

                                                                                                          Area.

The limitation of area to be held by any person is land to the unimproved value of £5,000. If he has £ 2,500 worth of land already the applicant can only take an area of the unimproved value of £2,500. This limitation, however, does not apply to city, town, or suburban lands.

                                                                                                         Prices.

The purchase money of ordinary mallee lands throughout the State varies from 2s. 6d. (the minimum) to £ 1 per acre.

Under the conditions mentioned 3,074,683 acres have been gazetted open to application at a purchase money of £ 922,404 since the Act of 1912 authorising same was passed. The average purchase money on the area offered was 6s. per acre. Of that area, 1,717,458 acres have been allotted at a purchase money of £ 622,374, or an average of 7s. 3d. per acre. It should be mentioned, however, that of this area 235,297 acres, of a value of £ 83,150, were allotted on perpetual lease at a rental of 4 per cent. on the value of the land.

                                                                                                        Area alienated.

It will be seen that in spite of the fact that a perpetual lessee at the expiration of ten years has only to pay £4 for every £100 of purchase money rent, as against £ 5 12s. 10d. which an applicant who takes the land under agreement with covenant to purchase is required to pay, the applications for agreements with covenants to purchase are overwhelmingly in excess of those for perpetual leases. No charge is made for survey.

                                                                                                 Water supplies

In many cases (on Eyre Peninsula for instance) there is no water except that which is obtained by artificial means- catchments, reservoirs, or tanks, etc. If the Government construct a large reservoir in the midst of one of these areas the cost is added to the land and the settlers have to pay a proportion, or, in some cases, the whole. This is done to recoup the Government to some extent. In addition, in these scrub areas an amount is added to the land for road clearing, which costs, as a rule, about £ 12 to £ 14 per mile. This is added to the purchase money and spread over the term of the lease r agreement, so that in many cases it amount to less than 1s. per acre, and the settlers do not feel it to be a burden. Usually the Government clears the road but sometimes the work is done by the district councils, when the land is within their districts, and paid for by the government. There is no necessity to provide many waters on the lands east of the River Murray, because sub-artesian supplies are obtainable at moderate depths and bores can be put down and the necessary equipment for raising the water suppled at a total cost of from £120 to £200. In the waterless country, so as to encourage settlement, shed 7-ft x 30 ft with tanks of an aggregate capacity of 10,000 gallons are erected. These works are provided on the application of settlers at a cost of about £190 (previous to the war and the consequent very much higher price of materials the cost was about £120 to £140). These sheds and tanks have proved of great benefit to settlers as it relieves them of the necessity of carting water, sometimes for long distances. These works are aid for by the settler in 30 years, in the same way as he pays for his land, excepting that the instalments of interest become payable from the date of the Commissioner's certificate as to the cost. In the Hundred of Wudinna, on Eyre Peninsula, 4 7/s d. was