A STANDING GRIEVANCE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 22, 21 October 1907, Page 5

A STANDING GRIEVANCE.

<, . AN 'INADEQUATE PUBLIC OFFICE; A scene of much discomfort and inconvcni- , ence may be. witnessed daily in tho Land Transfer Department's public offices, .which ■are entirely inadequate for tho business of , tho solicitors and solicitors' clerks who have , 'to make use of them. Often about thirty people may be seen in tho strong room where tho records are kept, and from 'fifteen to twenty at the counter, tumbling over one another and the "cribbed, cabined and confined " staff. Members of tho profession . have not room to get out books and deeds, and sit down at their leisure to examine them; .nor can thiy stand at the Department's desks without being jostled by other members and impeded by big books. This want of accommodation' has been a standing griovahco with the legal profession for a loijg time past. Tho Jaw's delays, one gathers, are a tnflo to file delays of the Laud Transfer Department, caused by inadequate facilities Vqr dealing with the public business. A legal representative) was ablo to particularise these deficiencies to a member.of our ,'staff under several headings. Ho stated that in addition to insufficient accommodation; the ' Dopartmont, and ' especially the draughts- i men's branch, is insufficiently manned, but, as tho present staff is cramped for room, .'to ! increase it might prove a doubtful bonefit. '. Moauwhilo, when now titles aro required, • three or four months sometimes elapse bofore ' they can be issued, and when deeds are re- 1 quired for searching. there is again annoying < delay. The desk space of the office might • advantageously bo increased)-, especially at < 'that part of the room where the-deeds-index 1 books are kept. The counter space for regis- j tration' is inadequate, and one maj. havo to ' wait from half to three quarters of an hour ] to. register a deed. It was also urged that ' the room in which the Land Transfer records ' aro kept is doubtfully firo-proof, and tho loss ' of these records in tho event of firo would ( be an irretrievable- disaster. ' — •" ' ; "The ontiro trouble starts with want of space." declared our legal informant. ".If the Department had n proper offico and plenty of room for its clerks, ithero would be greater r expedition and more satisfactory results." ] As far as our representative could learn, ) nothing is being done to provide more space. \