THE COLONIST.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 277, 15 June 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST.

NELSON, FRIDAY, JUNE 15,1860.

We resume our remarks on, or rather extracts from Mr. Torrens's work.

Mr. Vincent Scully, one of the Commismissioners appointed to consider the subject of Begistration of Titles, thus describes the simple methods practised in various parts of the continent of Europe, in contrast with lawyer-ridden England :— "In England dealings in land are a luxury which ia rich man may indulge in, that a poor man cannot indulge in. "In Belgium there is a class we should call stockbrokers, but they are connected with dealings in land, mortgages, and transactions in land; and any person wishing to invest a large or small sum going to them has no greater difficulty in having the transaction arranged safely and properly than we have in buying stock and going to a broker for the purpose. It is just as simple and as easy. "In Hamburg and in Frankfort all persons such as our bankers and brokers, if they have any 'money which they wish to make available, instead of laying it out as our bankers would in the funds or in Exchequer bills or other securities, would invest it in land, which we, according to the present state of the law, do not consider an available security. " The difference is in fact quite reversed. A banker in Frankfort takes this investment in land, not only as the safest and best, but because it is most readily turned into money with less deductions or less influence from any circumstances. They prefer these securities to bonds, or to bills, or to any other securities that are at all available to them as men dealing in money. "In Belgium, Prussia, and other parts of the continent there is a perfectly easy mode of leading money on land. It is an affair of an afternoon. It will 'Joe found that where the law is simple the less rate of interest there is, and the larger the quantity of capital which takes that direction the landowners are able to borrow at a less late of interest than they are in this country. "In Belgium there is no difficulty in investing money in land as the Savings Bank of the country; persons there invest their money usually, if they have a small saving, in land." These are the words of Mr. Vincent Scully-—a lawyer, a veteran one too, and what is still better and rarer, an honest one. Which shall we have—the Norman refinements of freedom-boasting England, or the simple methods of the thrifty and happy folks of Belgium and honest burghers of the Hanseatic Towns? i Mr. Torrens tersely describes the South j Australian method of mortgaging as resembling that of the Hanse Towns. " The cost of mortgage is Ten Shillings, the time occupied in the transaction is Fifteen Minutes. The cost of transfer or release is Five Shillings, the time occupied is Five Minutes; and the validity of each step is guaranteed by an assurance fund supplemented by the security of the general revenues of the colony. 3' Once more we ask—Shall we tamely succumb to the delay, expense, and annoyance of having to submit our simple daily affairs to a band of so-called lawyers, probably in collusion with one another; or shall we fall back on the old, simple, time* saving, inexpensive method now practised in some parts of Europe, and which has been transplanted with such success to a neighboring colony ? Would not such a system divorce that unholy connexion between landsharks and lawyers—by which a few are made fat, and hundreds are ruined ; by which a feiv ride about in luxurious ease, while their, victims have to toil to the death in almost helpless poverty ? If such a simple method were adopted, could such scenes have taken and are continually taking place in this colony, where families are ejected from the land they had tilled for years and years, and on which they had built houses and offices, and planted orchards and formed gardens, in fact had turned the stubborn land into fruitfulness and beauty; and then, after these years of toil and trouble, to be turned out without notice and without one farthing compensation? ■

Well may landsharks and absentee agents retire to England, after having fattoned and battened on the bloody sweat of the poor; and well may the sycophants who have shared in the spoil or sat at the rich man's table get up testimonial dinners to such valuable members of our community. Mr. Torrens combats the opinion of Lord St. Leonards, that registration would not work well without maps, and quotes the Baying of one of the witnesses before the Commission of 1857, that a " map is a good servant, but a bad master; very useful as an auxiliary, but very mischievous if made indispensable." The Commission concurred in this; and Mr. Torrens remarks, "If this objection has such weight in England, where the boundaries of estates and farms remain unaltered for centuries, how fatal must it be in those new colonies where subdivisions and fresh combinations of landed estates are of daily occurrence." On the subject of compulsory registration, which has been advocated on the ground of the inexpediency and costliness of two systems of law in operation at the same time, and the opposition of the legal profession to the system, Mr. Torrens says— " The legal profession in South Australia have as a body exhibited decided hostility to the measure, using every means, aut/as.

aut nefas, to deter the public from availing themselves of its provisions; and thus libellously speaks of his brethren of the wig and gown :—" As pigs, when they attempt swimming against the stream, cut their own throats, the South - Australian conveyancers, by struggling against the new system, have rendered its effect vastly more disastrous to themselves than it would have been had they complacently submitted to the inevitable necessities of progressive reform."

He exempts New Zealand from this charge, for reasons which he does not give, and says there is "reason to believe that the profession will cordially cooperate, if they do not lead, in introducing a system of thorough reform." Ainsisoitil! From the tenth chapter—Summary of the Argument —we copy the following:— ««The English Law of Property is admitted to be insecure, costly, cumbrous, tardy, injurious, and unsuited to the requirements of these colonies. " These evils have not existed in England from all time, neither do they exist in other countries at the present day. Therefore they are not inevitable ills, arising of necessity out of attributes inherent in the nature of landed property. On the contrary— " Their Origin is clearly traced to the subtle devices resorted to in feudal times in order to evade the tyrannical exactions of arbitrary power; Thelr Growth, to the assumption of inordinate power by Ecclesiastical Courts; Their Perpetuation— 1. To the maintaining power of the legal profession—the closest and most influential power of modern times; 2. To the formidable aspect of the work, which deterred non-legal minds from essaying the task of law reform ; 3. To the high conservative feeling of the landowners of England, tending to inalienability in contradistinction to convertibility. The Benefits actually realised in South Australia from this policy are— 1. Titles being indefeasible, proprietors may invest capital on land secure against risk of deprivation; mortgagees also may confine their attention solely to the adequacy of the security; 2. A saving, amounting on the average to ninety per centum, or eighteen shillings in the pound sterling, has been effected in the cost of transfers and other dealings, irrespective of the contingent liability to further expenses resulting from suits of law and in equity; 3. The procedure is so simple as to be readily comprehended, so that men of ordinary education may transact their oivn business ; 4. Dealings in land are transacted as expeditiously as dealings in merchandise or cattle; fifteen minutes being the average time occupied in filling up and completing a transaction."

Mr. Jenkins, Native Interpreter, has sent us the following version of "Another report about the War."

As the people of Nelson were considerably excited on Wednesday evening by a report of another engagement at Taranaki; and as-the author of the report was said to be a native who had just returned from Porirua, Mr. Jenkins lost no time in endeavoring to ascertain the particulars, which proved to be as follows. A native, master of the Atalanta, had ridden in from Wakapuaka, where his vessel was anchored, and having recently come across the Strait from Porirua was anxious to see his friends and to hear the news. He met Mr. Gilbertson on the Haven-road, and a conversation took place. Renatu asked Gilbertson if he had heard any news from Taranaki. 'To which Gilbertson replied that he had not, and asked what it was. Renatu then (supposing that the people of had heard no news at all about the war) dealt out a minute account of the Battle of Waireka I This was at once converted into a recent engagement, and lost nothing in its addition-and-multiplieation progress from the Beach to the City.