QUEER TITLE TO LAND

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6811, 15 January 1929, Page 3

QUEER TITLE TO LAND

SYDNEY MAN’S LONELY VIGIL. SYDNEY, Jan. 4. By far lie most interesting personage in Sydney last w r eek-end was Mr Jack Miller, of Macle-ay street, Potts Point, who, to uphoTd a queer title to a strip of land in the city, had to sit in a roped-in enclosure from midnight on Saturday to midnight on Sunday, keeping out trespassers.

If anyone had trespassed on the strip of land he guarded in such a strange manner, the land must have reverted to the City Council. The narrow strip referred to is next to the Lyric Winter Garden picture theatre, in George Street, and Miller dared not sleep during the whole of the 24 hours vigil. The ropes fenced off the portion of the ground upon w-hich the exit doors of the theatre open. Usually it is a public thoroughfare; but once a year it is closed to the public so that it may still remain the private property of the Union Theatres, Ltd. It is not the only strip of land in the city to which a queer title is held. In Hamilton street there is a small piece of land on which the City Coun-

cil has been waiting to pounco as a public right-of-way, but the owner has it safely guarded with iron railings. The whole of Itowc street, which runs from Castlercagh street to Pitt street, is owned privately by the shopkeepers of the street, and the council has been endeavouring to claim it, too, as a right-of-way. In the University grounds there is a sfrip of private roadway which has to be closed once a year to protect the “private” rights of the University, and there are many areas in the city where one foot of land is held by eccentric persons. This has to be fenced off to stop trespassers. This year, a city solicitor will become the rightful owner to an acre of land at Northbridge, which is at present without title. Once each year lie erects a fence around the property so that no one can 'jump’ his claim.