MILITARY BOUNTY LAND CLAIMS. to lands given for ser 23. In all cases in which land has heretofore been or shall here- Warrants after be given by the Dominion for military services, warrants be granted for shall be granted in favor of the parties entitled to such land by military the Minister of Militia and Defence, and such warrants shall be vices. recorded in the Dominion Lands Office in books to be kept for the purpose, and shall be located as hereinafter provided, and patents for the lands so located shall be issued accordingly. may be located 1. Such warrants may be located by the owners thereof, in any Such warrants of the Dominion lands open for sale, or may be received in pay- lands open ment for a homestead claim for the same number of acres, or in for sale, payment in part or in full, as the case may be, for the purchase at or given in public or private sale of Dominion lands, at the value shewn upon lands. payment for their face, estimating the number of acres in the warrant at the price mentioned therein. 2. In accepting warrants as so much purchase money, any As to wardeficiency shall be payable in cash. But should any payment by rants accepted warrant or by amount in warrants, be in excess, the Government money. will not return any such excess. as purchase 3. In locating a warrant, should the same be for any aliquot As to part of a section, it must be located in a legal subdivision of corres- locating ponding extent; for instance, a warrant calling for one hundred warrants. and sixty acres must be located in a certain quarter section intact. 24. Assignments of Military Bounty land warrants duly made Assignments and attested before any person entitled by law to take affidavits of Military Bounty Land shall be recognized as conveying the beneficial interest therein, Warrants. but no assignment of the interest of the original owner (except in the case of Red River soldiers' warrants as hereinafter mentioned) will be held as transferring such interest, unless the assignment be endorsed on the back of the warrant; and in subsequent assignments the warrant, unless the same has been lost, (as hereinafter mentioned) must be attached to and form part of the claimant's or locatee's papers. representa officer or 25. In all cases where an officer or soldier entitled to Military Warrant or Bounty land dies before the issue of the warrant, or between the Patent to issue issue of the warrant and the location thereof, the warrant or the in favor of legal patent, or both, as the case may be, shall issue in favor of tives of the legal representatives of such deceased officer or soldier, deceased according to the law of the Province or Territory where the lands soldier. in question lie, who shall be ascertained in such manner and by such Court, Commissioners or other tribunal, as the Legislature of such Province shall prescribe by any Act passed for that purpose, and shall be certified to the Governor under such Act, or if the lands be in any territory in which there is then no Legislature, then in such manner and by such Commissioners as the Governor in Council may from time to time direct, and any Order in Council in that behalf may vest in any Commissioners under it power to summon witnesses and examine them New warrant may issue in lieu of war stroyed. them on oath and to compel the production of documents, and generally may vest in them all such powers and impose upon all other persons all such obligations, as the Governor in Council may deem necessary in order to ascertain and certify to the Governor the person or persons to whom the Patent ought to issue,and on any such certificate under this clause the Patent shall issue in accordance therewith. 26. Whenever any warrant for Military Bounty land issued in pursuance of this Act, is lost or destroyed, whether the same may runt lest or de- or may not have been sold and assigned by the original owner, the Minister of Militia and Defence, (such loss or destruction having been proved to his satisfaction,) may, and he is hereby required to cause a new warrant of like tenor to be issued in lieu thereof, in favor of the person to whom the warrant belonged at the time of its loss or destruction, if he be still living, or of his legal representatives as aforesaid, if he be no longer living, which new warrant may be assigned, located, and patented, and shall be of like value in every respect, with the original warrant, and in any and all such cases of re-issue, the original warrant, in whosesoever hands it may be, shall be null and void. Free grant of 27. And whereas by order of the Governor in Council, dated land by Order the 25th April, 1871, it is declared that,- in Council of 25th April, 1871, confirmed, Assignments of interest in such free grants recognized. The officers and soldiers of the 1st or Ontario and the 2nd or Quebec Battalion of Rifles, then stationed in Manitoba, whether in the service or depot compánics, and not having been dismissed therefrom, should be entitled to a free grant of land without actual residence, of one quarter section,--such grant is hereby confirmed, and the Minister of Militia and Defence is hereby authorized and required to issue the necessary warrants therefor accordingly: 28. And whereas effect could not be given to the above mentioned Order in Council, until the lands in Manitoba had been surveyed, and in the mean time many of the said men so entitled as above have assigned their interest in such free grants,-such assignments duly made and attested, and having the certificate of discharge in the case of non-commissioned officers or private soldiers attached thereto, and filed in the Dominion Lands Office before the issue of the warrant, shall be held to transfer in each case the interest of the man so entitled in the warrant when issued, which latter, in every such case, shall be attached, after registry, to the assignment on file, and held for delivery to the party entitled thereto, or for location. Surveyed ORDINARY PURCHASE AND SALE OF LANDS. 29. Unappropriated Dominion lands, the surveys of which lands open for may have been duly made and confirmed, shall, except as otherpurchase at $1 wise hereinafter provided, be open for purchase at the rate of one per acre, dollar dollar per acre; but no such purchase of more than a section, or PAYMENTS FOR LANDS. lands to be in 30. Payments for lands, purchased in the ordinary manner, Payments for shall be made in cash, except in the case of payment in military cash, as a rule. bounty warrants as hereinbefore provided. TOWN PLOTS, &c. serve tracts of 31. The Secretary of State shall have power, from time to time, to Secretary of set apart and withdraw from purchase and from the homestead State may reclauses of this Act, any tract or tracts of land which it may be land for Town considered by him expedient to lay out into Town or Village Plots, or Village and to cause the same to be surveyed and laid out, and the lots so laid out to be sold, either by private sale and for such price as he may see fit, or at public auction. Plots. 32. The Governor in Council may also set apart and appro- Governor in priate such Dominion lands as he may deem expedient, for the Council may set apart lands sites of market places, gaols, court houses, places of public wor- for other pubship, burying grounds, schools, benevolent institutions, squares and lic purposes. for other like public purposes, and at any time before the issue of letters patent therefor, may alter or revoke such appropriation, as he deems expedient, and he may make free grants for the purposes aforesaid of the lands so appropriated, the trusts and uses to which they are to be subject being expressed in the letters patent. HOMESTEAD RIGHTS OR FREE GRANT LANDS. purpose of se. 33. Any person who is the head of a family, or has attained Steps to be the age of twenty-one years, shall be entitled to be entered for taken for the one quarter section or a less quantity of unappropriated Dominion curing a homelands, for the purpose of securing a homestead right in respect respect of land, stead right in thereof. (Form A.) and provisions respecting the extent. 1. Provided that the limitation of quantity in this clause, shall same. not prevent the granting of a wood lot to the same person, under Proviso, as to the provisions hereinafter made with respect to timber in surveyed Townships. settler. 2. When two or more persons have settled on and seek to ob- More than one tain a title to the same land, the homestead right shall be in him who made the first settlement. .If both have improved. Interfering claims. Time for application Occupants of contiguous lands. Affidavit to be made. Entry. 3. Provided, that in cases where both parties may have made valuable improvements, the Secretary of State may order a division of such land, in legal subdivisions, in such manner as may preserve to the said parties, as far as practicable, their several Improvements, and further, may direct that what the land of each of such parties, as so divided, may be deficient of a quarter section, shall be severally made up to them in legal subdivisions from unoccupied quarter sections adjoining. 4. Questions as to the homestead right arising between different settlers shall be investigated by the Local Agent of the division in which the land is situated, whose report and recommendation, together with the evidence taken, shall be referred to the Secretary of State for decision. 5. Every person claiming a homestead right from actual settlement must file his application for such claim, describing the land settled, with the Local Agent within whose district such land may be, within thirty days next after the date of such settlement, if in surveyed lands; but if in unsurveyed lands the claimant must file such application within three months after such land shall have been surveyed; and in either case proof of settlement and improvement shall be made to the Local Agent at the time of filing such application. 6. Persons owning and occupying Dominion lands may be entered for other land lying contiguous to their lands, but the whole extent of land, including that previously owned and occupied, must not exceed one hundred and sixty acres, and must be in legal sub-divisions. 7. A person applying for leave to be entered for lands with a view of securing a homestead right therein, shall make affidavit before the Local Agent (Form B) that he is over twenty-one years of age, that he has not previously obtained a homestead under the provisions of this Act, that to the best of his knowledge and belief there is no person residing on the land in question, or entitled to enter the same as a homestead, and that the application is made for his exclusive use and benefit, and for the purpose of actual settlement. 8. Upon making this affidavit, and filing it with the Local Agent, and on payment to him of an office fee of ten dollars for which he shall receive a receipt from the Agent, he shall be permitted to enter the land specified in the application. Entry of con- 9. In entries of contiguous lands, the settler must describe in tiguous lands. his affidavit the tract he owns and is settled upon as his original farm. Actual residence on the contiguous land entered is not required but bond fide improvement and cultivation of it must be thereafter shewn for the period required by the provisions of this Act. No patent for 10. No patent shall be granted for the land until the expiration three years. of three years from the time of entering into possession of it except as hereinafter provided. Issue of patent. 11. At the expiration of three years the settler or his widow, her heirs or devisees, or, if the settler leaves no widow, his heirs or devisees, upon proof, to the satisfaction of the Local Agent that die without devising. that he, or his widow or his or her representatives as aforesaid, or some of them, have resided upon or cultivated the land for the three years next after the filing of the affidavit for entry, the settler or such claimant shall be entitled to a patent for the land, provided such claimant is then a subject of Her Majesty by birth or naturalization. 12. When both parents die, without having devised the land, and When parents leaving a child or children under age, it shall be lawful for the executors (if any) of the last surviving parent, or the guardian or guardians of such child or children, with the approval of a Judge of a Superior Court of the Province or Territory in which the lands lie, to sell the lands for the benefit of the infant or infants, but for no other purpose; and the purchaser, in such case, shall acquire the homestead right by such purchase, and on carrying out the unperformed conditions of such right, shall receive a patent for the land, upon payment of the office fees. 13. The title to lands shall remain in the Crown until the issue Title before of the patent therefor, and such lands shall not be liable to be taken patent. in execution before the issue of the patent. Settler aban 14. In case it is proved to the satisfaction of the Local Agent doing his that the settler has voluntarily relinquished his claim, or has claim. been absent from the land entered by him, for more than six months in any one year, then the right to such land shall be forfeited; and the settler so relinquishing or abandoning his claim shall not be permitted to make more than a second entry. 15. Any person who has availed himself of the foregoing pro- Patent before three years on visions may, before the expiration of the three years, obtain a payment of patent for the land entered upon by him, including the wood lot, price, &c. if any, forming an addition to the grant thereof, as hereinafter provided, on paying the Government price thereof at the date of entry, and making proof of settlement and cultivation for not less than twelve months from the date of entry. 16. Proof of actual settlement and cultivation shall be made by Proof of imaffidavit of the claimant before the Local Agent, corroborated on provement. oath by two credible witnesses. void. 17. All assignments and transfers of homestead rights before Assignments the issue of the patent shall be null and void, but shall be deemed evidence of abandonment of the right; and the person so assigning or transferring shall not be permitted to make a second entry. 18. The above provisions relating to homesteads shall only Provisions to apply to agricultural lands, and shall not be held to apply to lands apply only to homesteads. set apart as timber lands, or to those lands on which coal or minerals are at the time of entry known to exist. GRAZING LANDS. Dominion neighboring 34. Leases of unoccupied Dominion lands may be granted for Unoccupied grazing purposes to any person or persons whomsoever being bond lands may be fide settlers in the vicinity of the land sought to be leased, at leased to such rent and for such term as the Secretary of State shall deem settlers for expedient; but every such lease of grazing land shall, among other grazing things, contain a condition making such land liable for settlement Conditions. purposes. |