LAND TRANSFERS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 186, 24 July 1923, Page 3

LAND TRANSFERS.

SIMPLIFYING THE SYSTEM. * (From our Parliamentary Reporter). Wellington, July 23. The I.and Transfer Amendment Bill which the Hon. Sir Francis Bell has introduced with the object of bringing under the land transfer system all the land titles in New Zealand, involves a very heavy programme of work by the Deeds Registration Department and it was the original opinion of the Regis-trar-General of Land that it. would take more than five years to bring all the titles under the simpler system of land transfer. However, in a memoranda to the Attorney-General, this officer states that it will be possible to complete the work within five years except perhaps in the Auckland land district in which about half the land affected is situated. The main difficulties will be to find additional examiners and clerks and to find room for them ip the deeds registration offices. The hours during which the public may inspect deeds will have to be materially curtailed during the process. »t is shown that throughout New Zealand the average proportion of titles held under Crown grant is 18.6 per cent, the remaining 81.4 per cent being held under the modern system of land transfer. The estimated number of holdings or titles under the old system is 70,000, and the number is increasing in spite of lands being brought under the Lands Transfer Act at the rate of 4 per cent per annum.

THE NEW SCHEME. It is intended to have an official examination of titles made and put on record and to issue certificates of title guaranteed except as to the specific defects which may be found by the examiners to exist. A person searching the title will then only have to inspect the certificate of title with the Registrar’s minute setting forth the defects. “To issue fully guaranteed titles without requiring surveys,’’ remarks the Registrar, “would be to invite numerous claims upon the assurance fund in cases which abound especially in towns where the documentary titleholder has lost his title to part of the land by encroachment and adverse possession of his neighbours and in cases where the descriptions of land in deeds is erroneous.’’ It is proposed, therefore. to avoid the immediate necessity for surveys by issuing titles not to be guaranteed as to the position areas or boundaries of the land until such time as the proprietor (or it may be the adjoining proprietors) shall deposit a survey plan or plans showing what the proprietor is in possession of\ and the correct measurements.

COST TO THE LANDOWNER. Landowners will not be required to do anything or pay anything for bringing land under the Act, but the Department proposes to make a charge of £1 5s for the first certificate of title. This will bring in about £lOO,OOO. which is believed to be more than sufficient to cover the cost to the country. Payment by the landowner will not be made until a dealing is required to be registered and the proprietor will usually be saved more than the special fee by reason of the lower scale of charges for preparing instruments under the Land Transfer Act.