Section 74 of the Principal Act is repealed and the following section is substituted:

74.     Priority of applications for leases

(1)  If more than one application is received for a lease in respect of all or part of the same land, the order of priority is as follows:

(a) an application by a person who marks out the land before any other person has priority over an application by that other person;

(b) for applications where marking out is done on the same day, the order of priority is as determined by the Director according to the relative merits of the applications;

(c) for applications where marking out is done on the same day and which are determined by the Director to be of equal merit, the order of priority is as determined by a ballot conducted in an approved manner;

(d) applications received up to and including 4 working days after the date specified under section 70(4) have equal priority and are to be determined without reference to any other application.

(2)  The Registrar is to reject any application received later than 3 months after receipt of an application determined to have priority.