Each lease contained clauses rendering the land subject to revaluation
at the end of each period of twenty-one years, on which the rental
would be calculated. If the new valuation, which it was provided
should rigidly exclude all improvements on the land, was assented to
by the tenant, the matter was settled for another twenty-one years;
but if he objected to the new valuation as excessive, it was provided
that he could demand that it should be offered by public auction
(subject to payment of the value of his improvements), and that the
amount bid for it either by himself or by anybody else at the sale
should be esteemed the value on which the rental was to be calculated
during the twenty-one years next following the sale. In case the
present holder of the lease was the highest bidder, this was the only
result of the sale; but in case he was outbid he was bound to transfer
the lease to the best bidder, on receiving from the government the
amount at which his improvements had been valued. This payment might
be made in government bonds, bearing interest at four per cent, at the
option of the government, and the new holder of the lease was charged
as rent the interest on the value of the land as bid by himself and
also interest at five per cent upon the former leaseholder's
improvements. By this means it was proposed to retain for the
community at large the increased value of the lands of the country
which was not due to the improvements made from time to time by the
leaseholder. The inducement held out to the public to accept such
leases in preference to a freehold was the saving of capital involved
in not paying for the land when taken up, but only interest on the
amount. This, it was hoped, would suffice to render it popular with a
considerable class of actual working settlers as distinguished from
speculative buyers.

It is only fair to say that in spite of every effort that could be
made by the government, the system did not commend itself to the
judgment or the prejudices of the persons interested to any very great
extent. What they wanted--what it may be taken for granted is wanted
by nearly everybody in dealing with land--was a fixed tenure. It was
not enough to know that they had a lease for 999 years; they wanted to
know what they were to pay for it, not only during the first
twenty-one years, but at any time during the 999. Eventually this had
to be conceded, and as the land law of New Zealand now stands the