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Southland Times, Issue 1351, 23 December 1870, Page 2

The action taken by "the Chamber of : Commerce to localise the. Land Transfer :Act will, we are sure, be heartily api proved of by the district. So far as the ■ legislature is concerned, the facts elicited i by the. jdiseussion „have_^hcowji_a. jxgm. ; light on the project— a light , which it of much of its iustre, when viewed as a public boon. The policy of the Government, it appears, is to work-ii; from as few centres as possible, in order

that it may become profitable as a Government speculation. The vital principle of the registration system is not, in its operation, of a centralising tendency. In Scotland, where it first had its rise, and where it has been brought to the highest state of efficiency, the Gteneral Eegister in Edinburgh is represented by branch registers, or, as tney are called; Particular - Registers, planted in every town arid district of importance throughout the kingdom, xndeed, the centralising tendency is antagonistic to the legitimate operations of the system. Transactions in landed estate are only safe where the requisite search is brought down to the moment when evidence of the transaction is put upon the record. A tona fide transfer, may be defeated by a fraudulent convey- ' ance, subsequent in date, but placed first uponrecord; andin the same way afraudulent disposition getting on the register , between the close of the search anil receipt by the registrar of intelligence of the bona fide .transaction, would likewise carry the property. Of course it is clearly understood that these remarks apply solely to cases where the fraud rests entirely with the disponer, and no collusion existed between him and the j disponee. The essence of the system is j to get the search brought down to the time when the transfer becomes a recorded fact, so that the two acts may be literally carried into effect as one consecutive transaction. If only one register be established : for a territory many hundred square miles in extent, the surest safeguard belonging to the act, or rather the principle of the act, will be neutralised. The economical provision intended by the Land Transfer Act is another view of the subject this centralising arraugement will stultify, but as that view was fully argued by the Chamber, it is unnecessary to make further allusion to ■it. ■■ • .. ■■•,•• ■ ■■■;'.■ We do hope now that the application on behalf of Southland has narrowed itself to one for. the determination of the Colonial Secretary, it will be favorably considered. It seems very plain that if a district register is not' provided for Southland, the Act will be inoperative so far as we are concerned. . < '