SHOULD BE SHELVED?

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10507, 10 February 1928, Page 2

SHOULD BE SHELVED?

NEW REGULATION AS TO LAND TRANSFERS. * COMPLAINT ILLEGAL CIRCLES. (Speoial to the Times.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 8. Regulations gazetted under the Census and Statistics Act, 1923, governing information which must be supplied with applications to register instruments such as leases, conveyances, transfers or mortgages, have created considerable concern in legal circles.

Lt is understood that, while the Wellington Layv Society pledged itself to assist the Department, to collect useful information, no such proposals as the present ones were thoughtlikely, and that practically every law society in New Zealand is strongly opposed to the demands of the regulations. These relate to the detailed information of the nature and purpose for which the land is required, the purpose for which the amount secured, the situation of the land and the separate government valuation of the land where such a valuation exists. “It is difficult to imagine regulations which would give more bother or more useless information,” said a. leading conveyancer and ex-member of the council of the- New Zealand Law Society, in comment on the regulations to-day. “This decision, of the legality of which I am not satisfied, alters the procedure under tho Land Transfer Act and Deeds Registration Act, and will cause endless bother besides making land dearer for the purchaser, by the Government valuation fee. - Also, it will impede business by 24 hours at least, it being necessary to wait that long after lodging an application for a copy oi an existing valuation with the Valuation Department. “What I cannot see is- the purpose of the regulations. The only thing for which I could conceive them being useful is to show a solicitor by the volume of transfers passing through any particular district whether or not it is worth his while to start practise there. This, I presume, is not the Department’s purpose. The matter is shortly to bo discussed by the New Zealand Law Society, and a united stand against the regulations is practically certain. Wo all hope that wo will be able to induce the Government to shelve them.”