GAVIN BRIGHTON AND HIS LAND IN FEE SIMPLE.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1868, 12 March 1913, Page 7

GAVIN BRIGHTON AND HIS LAND IN FEE SIMPLE.

To the Editor. Sir,—No doubt Sir Joshua Williams decision in the above case will be light, but to a layman it has altered the meaning of the term "Fee

Simple." Gavin Brighton held leases in perpetuity'i.e., 999 years leases—the Act of last session granted the holders of such leases the right to purchase the fee simple. I take the fee simple to be the highest title on which anyone can hold land. It would seem to a layman that no matter what were contained in those leases the actual fact of the purchase of the fee simple would sweep away all conditions contained in those leases—and create a new transaction in fee simple. I How will the coal Lords of England, Scotland and Ireland view this decision. There is no such thing as surface maintenance in the usual Crown grant, which is a grant to the individual and his heirs for ever. I take the fee simple to mean the same thing all over the British dominions. If this is not so, it is full time the term was defined. In Great Britain the holder of land in fee simple is entitled to the coal under the surface and a deep drain into the earth as he can go—and even to gold in the earth, with a certain royalty to the Crown. —I am, etc., MOLLEY.