LAND TRANSFER ACT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2507, 28 February 1871, Page 2

LAND TRANSFER ACT.

NO IV.

The principle of the Land Transfer Act being to aim as far as possible at a uni', formity of system in the laws which govern real and personal estate ; and for this purpose rather to take the laws of personal estate as the model to which the laws of real estate should be made to conform, than on the o ic hand to preserve untouched all the ancient rules, because they were once useful, or on the other to be annually plucking off, by parliamentary enactments, the fruit which such rules must, until eradicated, necessarily produce; it is interesting to observe in what manner it is proposed to deal with a title when the evidence set forth is imperfect. We have already shown the distinction 1 etween a bad title and an imperfect title. The act will not turn a bad title into a good one, but will assist the owner of a good holding title to make a marketable title of it. If the examiner and registrar upon investigation lind that any parties interested in any unsatisfied mortgage or ,encumbrance affecting the title to the laud sought to bo brought under the Act, or beneficially interested therein, otherwise than as lessees, are not parties to the application, or that the evidence of title set forth is imperfect, or that the applicant has notice of hia application to be served personally upon any person —as where he has contracted to soil, mortgage, or cncumb?r, or has executed a deed iii escrow, or the like : the Examiner and Registrar may reject the application altogether, or at their discretion give notice to all persons, other than the applicant, who, may appear to them to hive any interest in the land in qnestiqn, and advertise in at least one newspaper published in the district, and in such newspapers published elsewhere as the evidence before the Examiner aud Registrar, shall warrant.

The Kcw Zealand Gazette, the London Gazette, anil the official gazettes of each of the Colonies of New South Wales, Victoria. Sooth Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Aust.-alia, or one or all of them, ia or are the organs through which notice hag to he given to any person or persons interested, according t.i the evidence produced as to this supposed residence ; and a time his to bo app tinted in such advertisements being not has than two months, nor mo:e than twelve months, from the date of the first of such advertisements appearing in tbs New Zealand Gazette, after the expiration of which time the JRegistrar may bring the land under the provisions of the Act, unless in the interval a caveat shall have been received forbidding him to do so. The Registrar is, moreover, required, und r the direction of the Examiner and himself, or tmder any order of the Supreme Court, to

publish in such manner as by such direction or order may be prescribed and to post a copy of the notice of applicat on in a conspicuous place in his office, and in such other places as he may deem necessary, and to send registered letters throncli the Post Office, containing a copy of such not'ce, addressed to the persons, if any, whom the Examiner and Registrar have directed to be served, and to the persons, if any, stated in the application to be in occupation of the land, or to bo occupiers or proprietors of land contiguous thereto. Persona) service is also provided for on any pe son named in the application, when the applicant requires ir. If within the time limited in the advertisements, or any notice forwarded by registcicd letter has not been returned by the Post-master-General, or if he has not received a caveat, and in any case in which perao- al service has been required, on proof that such notice has been served; the Regist-ar is directed to bring the laud as described in the application under the provisions of the Act by issuing to the applicant proprietor, or to such person as he may by wiitiug direct, a certificate of .title for the same. But section 28 jirovides that, whenever any letter containing any notice has been returned, or that any notice required to be personally served lias failed to be or cannot be so served, the Registrar and Examiner are to confer with each other, and may reject the application altogether, or may direct the Registrar to bring the land under the Act fortwith, or after such further Interval, notification, or advertisement, as they may deem fit. Any person having or claiming an interest in any land so advertised or his attorney, may within the time limited lodge a caveat with the Registrar particularising the estate, interest, lien, or charge, claimed, of ■which a short form is given in Schedule B to the Act, forbidding the registration of such land. The Registrar then gives notice to the applicant proprietor, and suspends further action in the matter until the caveat is withdrawn or lapses, which it does after the expiration of three months fr m its receipt, unless the person by whom or on whoso behalf it was lodged within that period takes proceedings in any court of competent juris diction, to establish his title to the estate, interest, 1 en, or charge, which ho claims, and thereof has given notice to the Registrar, or obtains from the Supreme Court an order or injunction restraining the Registrar from bring the land under the Act, or other final decision therein. The Registrar himself is a'so authorised to enter caveats whenever it appears to him that insufficient notices have been given, or that the interest of any persons are likely to be affected, or that persons unler disabilities are interest d, or from my other cause whatsoever. {To be continued.)