BILLS OF SALE REGISTRATION ACT 1836.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 412, 15 October 1856, Page 7

BILLS OF SALE REGISTRATION ACT 1836.

(Assented to 29th July, 1856.) Whereas frauds are frequently committed upon creditors by secret bills of sale of personal chattels, for remedy whereof bo it enacted by the General Assembly of New- Zealand as follow : 1. Every bill of sale of personal chattels' made

after the passing of this Act either absolutely or conditionally, and subject or not subject to any trust, and whereby the guarantee or holder shall have power either with or without notice, and either immediately after the making of such bill of sale, or at any future time, to seize or take possession of any property or effects comprised in or made subject to such bill of sale, and every schedule or inventory which shall be thereto annexed or therein referred to, or a true copy thereof, and of every attestation of the execution thereof shall, together with an affidavit of the time of such bill of sale being made or given, and a description of the residence and occupation of the person making or giving the same, or in case the same shall be made or given by any person under or in the execution of any process,_ then a description of the residence and occupation of the person against whoni such process shall have issued, and of every attesting i witness to such bill of sale be filed with the -Registrar or Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court for the District, Division, or Province within which such bill of sale shall be made or given,_within twenty-one days after the making or giving of such bill of sale (in like manner as a warrant of Attorney in any personal action is now by law required to be filed), otherwise such bill of sale shall, as against all assignees of the estate and effects of the person whose goods or any of them are comprised in such bill of sale under any laws now or hereafter to be in force relative to Bankruptcy or Insolvency, or under any assignment for the benefit of the creditors of such person, and as against all Sheriff's officers and other persons seizing any property or effects comprised in such bill of sale, in the execution of any process of any Court of Law or Equity, authorising the seizure of the goods of the person by whom, or of whose goods such bill of sale shall have been made, and against every person on whose behalf such process shall have been issued, be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever, so far as regards the property in or right to the possession of any personal chattels comprised in such bill of sale, which at or after the time of any bankruptcy or insolvency, or of the execution by the debtor of such assignment for the benefit of his creditors, or of executing sucli process (ao tlic caeo majrlio), and after the expiration of the said period of twenty-one days, shall be in the possession or apparent possession of the person making such bill of sale, or of any person against whom the process shall have issued under, or in the execution of which such bill of sale shall have been made or given, as the case may be.

2. If such bill of sale shall be made or given subject to any defeazance or condition or declaration of trust not contained in the body thereof, such defeazance or condition or declaration of trust shall, for the purpose of this Act, be taken as part of such bill of sale, and shall be ■written ,on the same paper or parchment on which such bill of sale shall be written, before the time when the same or a copy thereof respectively shall be filed, otherwise such bill of sale shall be null and void to all intents and purposes as against the same persons, and as regards the same property and effects, as if such bill of sale or a copy thereof had not been filed according to the provisions of this Act. 3. The said Registrar or Deputy Registrar shall cause every bill of sale, and every such schedule or inventory as aforesaid, and every such copy filed in his said office under the previsions of this Act to be numbei'ed, and shall keep a book or books in his said office, in which he shall cause to be entered an alphabetical list of every such bill of sale, containing therein the name, address, and description, as well of the person making or giving the same, as of the person to whom or in whoso favour the same shall have been given, or in case the same shall be made or given under or in the execution of any process as aforesaid, then the name, addition, and description of the person against whom such process shall have issued, and also of the pei-son to whom or in whose favour the same shall have been given, together with the number and the dates of the execution and filing of the same, and the sum for which the same has been given, and the time or times (if any) when the same is thereby made payable according to the form coutained"in the Schedule to this Act. which said book or books, and every bill of sale or copy therefore tiled in the same otlk-o may be searched and viewed by all persons, at all reasonable times, paying to the officer for every search against one person the sum of two shillings and no more. "

4. There shall be paid to the Registrar or Deputy Registrar, upon the filing of every such bill of sale or a copy thereof as aforesaid, the fee or sum of two shillings and no more. 5. Any person shall he. entitled to have an office copy or an extract of every bill of sale, or the copy thereof as aforesaid, upon paying for the same at the rate o( four pence for every folio of seventy-two ■words contained in such copy or extract 6. It shall be lawful for any Judge of the Supreme Court to order a memorandum of satisfaction to be written upon any bill of sale or copy thereof respectively as aforesaid, if it shall appear to him that the debt (if any) for which such bill of sale is given as security shall have been satisfied or discharged. .7. In construing this Act, the following words and expression?, shall have the meanings hereby assigned ro them, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such constructions (that is to say)—the expression " bill of sale" shall include bills of sale, assignments, transfers, declarations of trust without transfer, and other assurances of personal chattels, and also powers of attorney and authorities or licences to take possession of personal chattels as. .security for any d-bt, but shall not include the following documents (that is to say) assignments for the benefit of the creditors of the person making or giving the same ; marriage settle»ments; transfers or assignments of any ship or any share thereof; transfers of goods in the ordinary course of business of any trade or calling ; bills of sale of goods in foreign park or at sea ; bills of lading; warehouse keeper's certificates; warrants or orders for the delivery of goods, or any other documents used in the ordinary course of business as proof of the possession or control of goods, or authorising or purporting to authorise, either by endorsement or delivery, the, possessor of such document to transfer or receive the goods thereby represented. The expression "personal chattels" shall mean goods, furniture, fixtures, and other articles capable of complete transfer by delivery, and shall not include chattel interest in real estate, nor shares or interest in the stock, funds or securities of any government, or in the capital or property of any incorporated or joint stock Company, nor choses in action, nor any stock or produce upon any farms or lauds which by virtue of any covenant or agreement, or of the custom of the country, ought not to be removed from any farm where the same shall be at the time of the making or giving of such bill of sale; and personal chattels shall be deemed to be-in the "apparent possession" of the person maldujj or giving the bill uf sale, sa long as they shall remain or be in or upon any house, mill, or warehouse, building, works, yard, land, or other premises occupied by him, or as they shall be used and enjoyed by him, in any place whatsoever, notwithstanding that formal possession thereof may have been takeu by or given to any other person. S. This Act may bs ci:ed for all purposes as the "Bills of Sale Registration Act, 1856."

Proposed Submarine Tunnel, from Birkenhead to Liverpool.uxder the River Mersey. —A project for accomplishing this desirable and useful commercial undertaking, and which would prove of general advantage to those rapidly rising towns, has been recently submitted to several influential gentlemen, by whom it has been received with approbation and encouragement, sufficient to induce :he projector :o bring the subject as early as possible more fully before the notice of the inhabitants of Liverpool and Birkenhead, for whose benefit particularly the project is intended, by affording a safe and easy communication from town to town, through a trsble-arched tunnel beneath the Mersey: one arch, being for a double line of railway ; one arch for waggons, carts, and co.-niner-ciai carriages, and one arch for quick-moving vehicles, equesterians, and pedestrians, affording every possible advantage to the general public, for access to and from each town, instead of by the present ferries, which are not at all times pleasant, or even^safe to cross over. A con.-iderable advan tajre would present itself to others besides the inhabitants, in prolonging the railways which are now compelled to terminate on each* side of the Mersey, ami offering a continuous route, or a terminus on each side for each railway, whichever arrangement would be the most desirable for the travelling public. The plan is a modification of the tunnel proposed by Mr. W.Austin, fora passage under the ten from Dover to Calais, as described in the ' Mining Journal,' of January 19. Ti.e Mersey tunnel, would, as at present proposed and arranged be about two miles in length, of which about threequarters of a mile would be made under the river. The whole of the tunnel thoroughly diy, ventilated, lighted with gas, under surveillance, and easy of access at all times and seasons.— Aiininy Journal Fkkemasonry in Turkey.—Although for the last thirty years it has been supposed that freemasonry existed in Turkey, yet it was only about five year? ago that anything certain was ascertained on the subject. About that time a commercial traveller, a freemason, while in Belgrade, was introduced into a Turkish Lodge by a Christian professor, and there met with a brotherly reception.

The Turkish freemasons call themselves Dervishes, and continue to be Mussulmans, but they have the same ceremonies and the same signs us the freemasons of Europe, and pursue the same objects of humanity and benevolence. They appear to have raised themselves above the prejudices of Islainism, as they do not admit polygamy, and women were present, unveiled, at the banquet of the Lodges. The Lodge of Belgrade, called Ali Kotch, is composed of seventy members. Its master, Tanzi-Ismail-Zeholakr Mchomet Saede, is at the same time Grand-master of the Lodges in European Turkey, and has relations with all the Lodges of the Turkish Empire, and also with those of Arabia and Persia. Those in the Ottoman Empire are numerous. Constantinople has five, the most famous of which is the Convent of the Turning Dervishes of Serekeeschi Teeka. In Turkey the Order counts 500,000 members. The Turkish freemasons wear, a* a distinctive mark, a small brown shawl, ornamented with different figures, and a ■small tablet of white marble, about two inches in diameter, polished, and having red spots, which signify spots of blood, and are a. remembrance of Ali, who introduced freemasonry into Turkey, and was punished with death for so doing.