REGISTEATION OF DEEDS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 2, Issue 92, 25 June 1859, Page 3

REGISTEATION OF DEEDS.

(From the S. M. Herald, May 9.) In referring on a previous occasion to the important topic of simplification in the transfer of land, we have drawn attention to the system recommended and adopted by Mr. Xeily of Auckland, in the registration of deeds for that province. This system lias found sufficient favour with the local authorities in that province to induce them to pass a iaw applying it to the nine counties over which they have jurisdiction, it having- been first applied only to a part of one county, and having on that small scale approved itself satisfactory. Should it exhibit its adaptation as perfectly to the wider sphere over which it id now made to extend, as it did to the smaller limits within which it had previously .been confined, it will soon be adopted by the neighbouring provinces, and become the general law of New Zealand. It is remarkable that two of the smallest colonies of the Australasian group should be taking the : leUd in this important department of law reform.. It might have been supposed that the larger, more populous, and more wealthy colonies, where there is a greater amount of legal talent and a greater uproar 'about political progress, w(mld set the example to the less developed and less prosperous states. But it is not co ; in fact, political commotion and Bocial reform seem in some respects to go on at' an inverse rate of progress"; in the zeal' about model constitutions, the true interests ,of society are: too: often' neglected. Yet, (here are few points in which legislation would more nearly touch the interests of the thrifty working classes than in simplifying and -cheapening the transfer of land. It is important, doubtless, to, the welfare of the community that ; 7»s»sfje;^and Bhould be easily purchasable in the ijjjgi; instance, fromi the Crown, but it is; equally "■important that hind ' sAbulct' flsiJ' lbe''res3ily pur-t Isnaiia'ble^fmd re^dllyHfaleable as between-private parties. It.^ on poorer classes, that the cumbrous sysWm of conveyancing : press@s' most heavily. The capitalist who buy b a large estate finds the lawyer's charge 1 for "the deed a compara* tively small tax, but the artisan who purchases an .^JUo^ment .on, which to bujhi his,, cottage J^nds thp ; 'ppnvevaince , bear? a^T'ery. i'a%C.pJ"6f&rti6n *o< thp ;; cosß o?.t%"fe» simple^ and.if hi tfUjtfs :t?> 'btfrrow

money to complete Mb home, the fees for the mortgage and the release greatly aggravate the rate of interest. Mr. Torbeks, in South Australia, and Mr. Kei> IV, in Auckland, both profess to have anticipated >the recommendations contained in the report of, the commissioners appointed by Her Majesty to investigate the question of land transfer. The former avowedly constructed his scheme as amere adaptation of the laws relating to the sale of shipping ; the latter claims to have gradually wrought out his system during six years' official practice as a colonial registrar of deeds. They both agree in substituting a register of letters for a register of deeds, in which respect they agree also with the recommendations of the Royal Commission. And by universal consent this seems to be the only direction in which reform is possible. Every system of registration of deeds breaks down with its own weight, and it is impossible to keep down the complexities and ambiguities that arise. The advantage of the substituted plan is, that it preserves perpetually the pristine simplicity and soundness 6f the original title, and prevents that overgrowth of legal weeds under which the quession of ownership is too often concealed. The principal objection urged against it is, that it ia not competent to provide for some of the refinements in the way^of settlements and encumbrances that solicitors occasionally delight in, and that often grow out of the testamentary dispositions of property. But even supposing this accusation against tbe new system to be true, it is undeniable that a registration of title provides effectively for the immense majority of ordinary cases of conveyance, mortgage, lease, and testamentary disposition, and it is therefore suited to the general purposes of the community. And if it should be found difficult, or even impossible, to bring extremely complicated settlements under similar arrangements, it would be better for the public at large that such isolated cases should be unprovided for, rather than that all should be heavily taxed by the retention of ponderous and irksome laws. But there is no sufficient ground for presuming that the system of registration of title cannot be made sufficiently elastic to provide for all contingencies. Where there is a will there is a way. Whatever has been done under a cumbrous system can hardly be impossible under a simple system.