OUSTED BY PHOTOS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16826, 13 December 1928, Page 13

OUSTED BY PHOTOS

CAMERA TAKES PLACE OF TYPISTS LONDON, Oct. 20. A new practice, and one which, itseems, might with advantage be adopted by many other government departments and business houses, has just been introduced by the Land Registry Office in the interests of economy. This is the substitution of photography for typewriting. ' A solitary camera will'take the place of a small army of typists. Very far off seem the days when every deed o! title to the ownership of land, every deed of transfer, every deed of mortgage, had to be laboriously engrossed by band. Even the typing of copies of deeds disappear under the new system. The land registry, which exists for the purpose of setting a government seal on any unimpeachable title to landed property which submitted to the department, for registration, and for expediting the process and saving the cost in any dealing in land, is rapidly expanding in'its operations. Last year alone more than 130,000 registrations and dealings with registered land were transacted by the de<

partmetit, and since the practice now is to issue with each of these a copy of certain deeds the extent to which the camera can make lor economy is evident. ".No admittance" is marked on the door of the room in which this camera works, for the strictest privacy is maintained as to the contents of every title deed. , Within a little over an hour SO copies of 50 different deeds are photographed, developed, washed and dried and were in a suitable condition to be handed over to the owner or the mortgagor of the land. A further economy, bf a more minor character, is now being introduced by the department. it was noticed that it required 97 taps of a typewriter key in order, to rule a line across a piece of foolscap, and since the departmenthas some 10 miles of such lilies to type each year, some quicker method was sought. Application was made to various typewriter companies without success, until finally it was suggested that a machine capable of ruling a line should foe invented. This has now been done by ..a British company, ahd the machines, m the department'are being equipped with the new device.