THE LAND TRANSFER ACT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2492, 10 February 1871, Page 2

THE LAND TRANSFER ACT.

>o. 11,

, Besides the causes of failure enumerated in the attempts which have been made to simplify the t:ausfer of landed property, the Imperial Land Registry Act (25 and 2(1, Viet., C, 53) never contemplated to confer an absolute indefeasible title The registered title was declared to be indefeasible only for the purposes of sale, mortgage, or contract for valuable consideration, by the persons originally, and from time to time named and described in the record of title, and would not therefore comprehend a mortgagee, who was not named in the record of title at all, but in a separate register called “The Register of Incumbrances.” And again, in every case in which the title deeds relating to property were in the hands of a mortgagee, the proprietor would be unable to register his title without production of the deeds, in order t) which, the consent of the mortgagee was requisite ; and it is scarcely likely that the mortgagee would consent to their production, because under ordinary circumstances he could himself derive no advantage cither directly or indirectly from registration : whilst he would have to incur the passible risk of his title being impeached by the proceedings necessary for that purpose}; and it was therefore improbable that hq would submit to incur the whole risk, where he Cuiild obtain no share of the benefit. As far as the proprietor himself and all parties claiming under him, other than purchasers for value or mortgagees were concerned, the title was as impeachable after registration as it was before; and the party registering acquired in return for the trouble, expense, and risk he might have incurred, the privilege of putting a, pur. chaser or mortgagee in a state of security which he could not acquire for himself or his descendants. The result was, that that privilege was not worth the risk and cost of obtaining it. Moreover, it was not likely that an owner of land, who did not contemplate the raising (if money by mortgage, would incur the trouble and expense of registering his title simply in anticipation of his being at some future time a borrower ; and when it became needful for him to borrow, he found that the delay attending the registration of his title was a sufficient obstacle in the way of availing himself of the Act, not to speak of the possibility of bis title being rejected ; and after all the delay and expense in endeavoring to obtain registration big position as .a mortgagor would be worse than if he had never made the attempt. An attempt was made in this Colony to simplify the transfer of laud in 1860, and the Laud Registry Act of that year was passed, which professed to confer on the person registered an indefeasible estate in fee-simple, subject to the incumbrances, reservations, and other matters, if any, entered on the Register; but no person or corporation, unless entitled absolutely for his or their own benefit to an estate in laud in fee-simple, at law and in equity, free from trusts and incumbrances, con'd apply to bn registered as proprietoruunderr r that Act; and no laud granted by the Crown after the commencement of that Act could be transferred or charged unless the grantee or his heirs should first have been registered as the proprietors of such land. It is true that an application for registration might be entertained where the applicant admitted that the laud in respect of which lie applied was subject to any specified incumbrance o,r trust, and the rights of the incumbrancers or cestuisque trusts would he reserved ; but it was woolly optional with the Registrar to entertain the application or not as he pleased. Any proprietor, therefore, wh > was not possessed of the legal and equitable estate—and we leave the public to judge how many proprietors come within this definition—could not avail himself of the supposed benefits derivable from registration, Cpoq receipt of the application algo, in duplicate, the district Registrar had to transmit one of the duplicate copies of the application, t 'gether with copies of all deeds and documents comprising the title, to Wellington, to be examined with a view to judge of the propriety of the proceeding. Moreover the fees exacte 1 from the applicant on making his application were nough to frighten him out of the office. Re had to pay from one to five guineas to tte

Examiner of Titles, one shilling for cvciy deed or document deposited, fouvpencc per folio for thp copies of Lis deeds, exclusive, of plans, two shillings and sixpence for every plan, in addition to fee for entry; for every Oarjtte notice, live shillings (besides cost of advertising) ; for every hearing and adjournment of hearing, five shillings ; for every application or notice or charge, five shillings ; altogether amounting to a sum of something like fourteen op fifteen pounds, the greater portion of which w;ib op&nt, and charged, whether the application was accepted or not. Then after a lapse of three or four months came the addi-. tional registration fees to be paid, provided his application was received. One can little wonder that such attempts to simplify the transfer of land proved abortive, and that the public hailed with delight the Laud Transfer Act of 1870, which is a literal transcript of Torrens’ Act, copied from the Statute book of South Australia.