LAND TRANSFER ACT, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2480, 27 January 1871, Page 2

LAND TRANSFER ACT, 1870.

To the Editor of the Evening Star.

Sir,— From the series of articles on the “ Land Transfer Act, 1870,” which have appeared in the columns of your contemporary, it would appear that the working of that Act will be attended with the greatest difficulty ; in fact from the tone of the strictures, a matter 'of impossibility. As however the same A ct is in full operation, not only in the Australian colonies, but also in England, where it has worked smoothly, I do not think” the articles dir question . are

worth much consideration. They have evidently been written by a common law pleader who knows nothing about conveyancing. As one example of the ignorance of the reviewer : in noticing the provision made in the Act for the issue of a fresh certificate in case of the loss of the original in reference to the fourteen days notice required to be given in the Nor Zealand Gazette, he says “This appears to us to be a very inadequate protection against fraud or mistake, and we may be sure that cases of the kind \jdll arise. In this Province alone there have been instances of Cro ,vir grants being issued to the wrong persons upon declarations of loss ” Now this is absurd (and is utter nonsense. Not a single instance could occur of a Crown Grant being issued to the wrong person upon a declaration of loss. By the “Crown Grants Act, 1866.” section xxxvi, it is provided, “ Whenever a Crown Grant shall have been lost or destroyed by fire or other inevitable accident it shall be lawful for the Governor upon evidence to his satisfaction, viz, statutory declarati ’n of the loss or abstraction of such grant being produced to authorise the issue of a duplicate or transcript of the original grant so lost or destroyed, certified under the hand of the Secretary for Crown Lands, and to cause the public seal of the Colony to be attached to such trancript or duplicate.” Comment is unnecessary. I am, &c., Peebles.