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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 96, 6 November 1852, Page 6

-—«—. We understand that Mr. Brittan has re^ ceived the appointment from his Excellency, of Registrar of Deeds for this Settlement. If this office be one which ought to be held by a gentleman who has no knowledge of law, it is not unnatural that it should be entrusted to Mr. Brittan who has held the situation of Land Agent under the Canterbury Association for nearly two years. But we have heard that it is the opinion of the law officers of the Crown that the Land Registration Ordinance applies only to lands held under titles derived from Crown Grants, and that the conveyances of the Canterbury Association are not Grown Grants within the meaning of the Ordinance. If this be so, it follows that with the exception of some two or three properties of the older Settlers, and the small sections held by the Akaroa settlers, the whole of this Settlement is beyond the pale of the law. A Registration Office is erected, with all its attendant expense, but is prohibited from Registering.

We must take leave to differ from the law officers of the Crown. The Grants of the Association are, we conceive, Crown Grants ; the Association being simply Commissioners for the issuing of such Grants, just as His Excellency or any other officer of Government might be commissioned to perform the same duty. The land is Crown Land, and therefore can be conveyed only by the Crown, or some one appointed by law to issue conveyances on the part of the Crown, which is exactly what the Association are empowered to do by Act of Parliament. -

The question may be very simply tried : let some one take a conveyance from the-' Canterbury Association to the RegisterOffice as soon as it shall be opened, and offer it for registration. If Mr. Brittan shall refuse to register it, let him bring an action against the Registrar for damages. The damages might be very serious, because by the Ordinance a deed unregistered is null and void as against a deed registered. But, if it be really true that the Ordinance will not apply to the Canterbury lands, then why in the name of common sense has the office been created ? Is it conceivable that with revenues already in arrear of the expenditure of the Settlement, a new office is to he erected, with avowedly nothing to

\do, until a law can be passed to make it 'of some use, that is to say some eight or 'ten months hence? There is additional and impropriety in the whole proceeding, because within a few months it will •be in the power of the Provincial Council «to decide for itself whether the office shall

Wist, and what shall be the duties and ■powers attached to it.