THE TORRENS REAL PROPERTY ACT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 971, 1 March 1862, Page 3

THE TORRENS REAL PROPERTY ACT.

[From the ' Melbourne Argus,' Feb. 17,] The character and operation of Mr. Torrons' Kea! Property Act, which is now in force in South Australia, may bo best studied in the report of the commissioners who were appointed to investigate its working, and to indicate of what amendments it might be susceptible. As the lute and present Chief Justice of South Australia were members of that, commission, it is fair to presume that the technical defects of the act (if any) would not escape attention, and'that they would apply a somewhat rigorous criticism to a measure'which had emanated from a layman.' As only the Lovititial priesthood were permitted to approach the Arlc of the Covenant, so it is little less profanity for any but members of the legal profession to lay hands upon something so snored and venerable as the laws affecting the transfer iuul encumbrance of real property. l«'or centuries, they have had the manufacture, exposition, and administration of those laws, and they have fulfilled the aspiration of the lawyer in Steele's comedy, who " hoped to see the day when the indenture should bo tho exact measure of the land that passes by it; for," said ho, " it is a discouragement to the gown that every ignorant rogue of an heir should in a word or two under-

mmmmmt^mmKmmmmMmwmMummmmmmmmmmmKmmmmmM stand his father's moaning, and hold ten acres of land by half an aero of parchment." Mr Torrens, however, is of opinion that considerably less than half un aero should suffice, and in ftn appendix to I ho report above alluded to, he gives us the forms of conveyance and mortgage, in use in South Australia — the brevity, lucidity, and succinctness of which ndVr mi amazing contrast to the length, verbosity, tautology, and incomprehensibility of such documents generally, in which are employed— " Ton thousand words, where ten would servo the need, Ton thousand meanings, discord meant to breed." lie has gone to Hamburg for his models, and has prevailed upon the Parliament of South Australia to legislate on this question in a mercantile spirit, and to render the transfer and mortgage of real property as simple and as cheap as the sale or hypothecation of a flock of sheep or a clip of wool. An ordinary '•.memorandum of transfer" comprises not more than 170 words, and a mortgage about double that number. The cost of the former is forty shillings, that of the latter something less; and the intervention of a lawyer is, Jiorrihile diclu, unnecessary. In Adelaide, as in the Hans Towns, a broker is capable of effecting the transfer, and is remunerated by a fixed scale of fees. One of the witnesses examined before the Commission stated that the gross charges connected with the conveyance of real estate in Hamburg were only five-eighths per cent. Let such of our readers as have had occasion to buy, sell, or mortgage lands or tenements, compare this modest fee with the costs to which they have been subjected, and draw their own conclusions as to the merits of the two systems. But is this simplicity compatible with security? Is it possible that there can be a safe title to an estate, without being as voluminous as the Rabbi Chananiah's commentary on the Prophet Ezekiel? Upon this point the testimony of the Heal Property Law Commission is explicit and conclusive. "The objects of the Real Property Act," they observe, "are to give security and simplicity to all.dealings with land, by providing that the title shall depend upon registration, that all interests shall be capable of appearing or being protected upon the face of the registry, and that a registered title or interest shall never be affected by any claim or charge which is not registered. By this system, every one who acquires any estate or interest in land upon being registered as owner thereof, obtains a title absolutely secure as against every one whose claim does not appear upon the registry; and the two elements of simplicity and security, as regards the acquisition of land, appear to be effectually attained." Since the act has been in operation, property estimated to exceed £1,500,000 in value has been brought under its operation, and it is anticipated that the system will be eventually applied to the whole of .the land alienated from the Crown in South Austalia. The mode of registration is described as "clear and complete;" there is no accumulation of instruments, the register contains a memorial of everything by which the land can be affected; and, add the commissioners, "all the witnesses whom we examined, and who have had dealings under the act bore testimony to the simplicity, cheapness, and facility of those transactions, and to the merits of the system by which these results were secured." It has been alleged by the legal profession that equitable or beneficial interests in land cannot be adequately protected under a system of registration such as that which has been established in South Australia ; but such allegations are satisfactorily disposed of by the commissioners, who fortify their own opinions by quoting those of the commission appointed in England to consider the subject of the registration of title; of which commission the present Lord Chancellor and the late Solicitor-General were members. The special objections to the South Australian Act, enumerated by Sir Hugh Cairns and Mr. Thrupp as, in their opinion, affecting the validity of the measure, are fully discussed, and such of them as appear to be well founded are proposed to be obviated by the introduction of amendments; and these amendments have no doubt been incorporated with the measure introduced by Mr. Service, inasmuch as Mr. Torrens is co-operating with him in this matter. Meanwhile, we have the assurance of the Chief Justice of South Australia, and of his predecessor, that tlie real property Act in operation in that colony, has " introduced a system which is at once simple, cheap, and secure;" and these are precisely the qualities which the public require in a measure of this kind. It is no untried novelty which we are about to introduce, but a system which has stood the test of centuries in Prussia, Hanover, and the Hanse Towns. It is a system, above all, based on the principles recommended by the Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the law of real property—comprising among them some of the ablest lawyers of the age. It may be opposed to the interests of a class; but it will be productive of great and lasting benefits to the whole community. It will diminish litigation and improve the value of all real property, because the latter will no longer be subjected to a heavy amercement every time it changes hands, but may be transferred or pledged with the same ease as bankstock or railway shares. To small freeholders the passing of such an act in this colony will be of immense importance, because the costs of conveying or mortgaging little properties, under the present system is ruinously disproportionate to the value of the cottage or land sold or encumbered.