Land grant

A land grant is a gift of

In 1788 the British claimed all of eastern Australia as its own, and formed the colony of New South Wales in Australia. The land was claimed as crown land. Over time, it granted land to officers and released convicts.^[2] Males were allowed 30 acres (12 ha), plus 20 acres (8.1 ha) if they were married, and 10 acres (4 ha) additional per child. Instructions were issued on 20 August 1789 that non-commissioned marine officers were to be entitled to 100 acres (40 ha) additional and privates to 50 acres (20 ha) additional.

Governor Macquarie canceled land grants issued during the Rum Rebellion of 1808–09, although some were later restored.

Land grants started to be phased out when private tendering was introduced, and stricter limits were placed on grants without purchase. The instructions to

There were also significant land grants in the Swan River Colony (Western Australia), and in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) from 1803.

Land grant railways

• In 1886, the Midland Railway of Western Australia was granted land concessions to build and operate a railway from Midland, near Perth, to Walkaway, near Geraldton.^{[citation needed]} This was built, but taken over by the government railway in the 1950s. It was and is 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge.^{[citation needed]}
• In 1889, a land grant railway from
  Angle Pole in South Australia was proposed. This would have been 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long. Angle Pole was a locality where the telegraph line had a bend in it. It was stillborn. The gauge would have been 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in).^[3]
• In 1897, a transcontinental north–south land grant railway was proposed to complete the missing link between Oodnadatta and Darwin, the latter then called Palmerston or Port Darwin. The plan was abandoned, though the government railway was extended in the 1920s from Oodnadatta to Alice Springs, with similar extensions at the Darwin end. It was originally 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge, but was replaced by a new 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge line on a different route.
• In 1909, a land grant
  railway was proposed in Queensland from Charleville to Point Parker on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, but the plan was abandoned.^[4]

Land grants were an incentive for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Ireland

The Plantations of Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries involved the confiscation of some or all the land of Irish lords and its grant to settlers ("planters") from England or Scotland. The English Parliament's Adventurers' Act 1640 and Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652 specifically entitled "Adventurers" who funded the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland to lands seized from the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the ensuing Confederacy.^{[citation needed]}

New Zealand

In New Zealand two private railway companies were offered land grants to build a railway, though both were eventually taken over by the government and incorporated into the government-owned New Zealand Railways Department.

The

Wellington-Manawatu Line north of Wellington to the Manawatu from 1881. The company was New Zealand owned. It was taken over by the government in 1908, and the line became part of the North Island Main Trunk

.

The New Zealand Midland Railway Company started the Midland Line between Canterbury and the West Coast in 1886 but the British-owned company was taken over by the government in 1895, having constructed only 131 km of the 376 km route.

United States

As English colonial law developed,^[when?] headrights became patents and a patentee had to improve the land. Under this doctrine of planting and seeding, the patentee was required to cultivate one acre (4,000 m²) of land and build a small house on the property, otherwise the patent would revert to the government.^[6]

Spanish and Mexican land grants

Between 1783 and 1821,

Starting with the American Revolutionary War, veterans often received land grants instead of backpay or other remuneration.^[9] Bounty-land warrants, often for 160 acres, were issued to veterans from 1775 to 1855, thus including veterans of the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War, as well as various Indian wars.^[10] The land grants helped settle the Northwest Territory (and later smaller areas, such as the Indiana Territory, the Illinois Territory and the Wisconsin Territory) and as well as the Platte Purchase in Missouri.^[11][12] Eligibility for the warrants expanded over the years through new Congressional acts of 1842, 1850, 1852 and 1855 to the point where they could be sold or given to descendants. The warrant program was discontinued before the American Civil War.^[11][12]

During the 19th century, various states (or even smaller units), as well as the federal government, made extensive land grants to encourage internal improvements, usually to improve transportation, such as construction of bridges and canals. The Land Grant Act of 1850 provided for 3.75 million acres of land to the states to support railroad projects; by 1857 21 million acres of public lands were used for railroads in the Mississippi River valley, and the stage was set for more substantial Congressional subsidies to future railroads.^[13] Universities were also beneficiaries of land grants.^[14] All five of the transcontinental railroads in the United States were built using land grants.^[15]

The

Economic impact

There is general agreement that the United States' federal policy of offering land grants had a positive impact on economic development in the 19th century.^[16]

See also

• Atrisco Land Grant
• Enclosure
• Encomienda
• Fief
• Land patent
• Land reform
• Land-grant university
• Maxwell Land Grant
• National Sea Grant College Program
• National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program
• Province of Carolina
• Ranchos of California
• Sangre de Cristo Land Grant
• Tierra Amarilla Land Grant
• United States Court of Private Land Claims

Notes