LAND REGISTRY OFFICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 4 April 1929, Page 11

LAND REGISTRY OFFICE.

EXTENSION OF PREMISES.

GROWING VOLUME OF WORK

The rapidly expanding needs of the Auckland Lands and Deeds Registry Office are likely to bo met for sorao eight or ten years to come hy the scheme of alterations and additions that has just been put in hand. On the site between the Lands and Deeds Registry building and the Law Courts iu High Street a fireproof concrete building is now being erected to provide storage accommodation for records and documents. The new building, which may bo used as a foundation for further additions later on, will be reached by a doorway from the present search room. The present plan room, in which the use of a sliding ladder has been necessary to reach plans, will be enlarged and rearranged in such a way that all can be reached from the floor or by the use of low steps. The existing fireproof accommodation will be considerably enlarged to include in its scope the rooms at present occupied by the registrar, Mr. W. Johnston, and his typist. The reception of instruments for registration will then no longer take place as at present in the search room, but they will be received elsewhere. Greater freedom and necessary quietness will thus be given to those who require to use the search room. Th* present staircase is to be altered and improved accommodation provided for the use of members of the staff during their lunch hour. Provision will be made for the registrar's rooms near the main entrance door. A result of those alterations will be to give better facilities to those requiring to make searches and to enable the taking in and delivery of documents to be more expeditiously handled. About a-third of the new plans and titles handled in New Zealand are dealt with in the Auckland office.- In 1928, 2500 plans were deposited in New Zealand, and 903 of these went through the Auckland office. About 14,000 ordinary titles were issued and 5239 of these were issued in Auckland. The comparative position was much the same in 1927. When the provisions of the Compulsory Registration of Titles Act, 1924, coiiig wholly into force_ there _ will be a great increase in these items in the province, accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the figures showing the reception of deeds. The total deeds registration fees paid in New Zealand in 1927 amounted to £20,000, of which £IO,OOO was paid in Auckland. In 1928 the corresponding figures were £15,000 for the Dominion and £BOOO for Auckland. The decrease is the result of the working of the Compulsory Registration Act, which will make its effect increasingly felt. It is expected that the services of an additional examiner of titles will be required here before long. The extension and renovations are to lie completed in five months' time.