No. 13.
PETITION
Presented to the Legislative Council at the meeting held on the. 21st January, 1885.
To the Honourable
THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
OF HONGKONG.
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED PETITIONERS.
SHEWETH
*
I. That your petitioners the undersigned solicitors constitute the whole body of solicitors in the Colony of Hongkong.
II. That a very large number (it is believed a majority) of the titles to land in the Colony have, for various reasons, during the existence of the Colony, fallen into a most complicated and entangled condition, so much so that there are, as your said petitioners have experienced, a very great number of titles which, though possibly so far good in the sense that no one could dispossess their owners thereof, are, from a technical point of view, practically bad in the sense of their not being, as they should be, titles which a Court of Equity would force on an unwilling purchaser.
III. Owing to these facts the transfers of land in the Colony have become to a large extent difficult, if not, indeed, on open contracts, impracticable undertakings, demanding strong guarding conditions of limitation on sales, which, however, valuable as a protection to Vendors, are apt to startle intending purchasers and prejudice the biddings, or where the contract is an open one, such as by letter, as so many are, the result, as the experience of the last three years conclusively proves, is frequently a law- suit.
IV. In consequence of the legal difficulties above referred to attaching to trans- missions of land, your said petitioners, at a meeting lately held by them, considered the whole question, and the mode that would be best in the public interest to effect a remedy.
V. At the same meeting your said petitioners unanimously passed the following resolutions:---
(1.) That in order to assimilate the law of property in this Colony to that now in force in England, and to facilitate the transfer of land in the Colony, it is very desirable that the Imperial Acts known as the Real Property Limitation Act 1874 and the Vendor and Purchaser Act 1874 should be extended to this Colony so far as the provisions of the same are applicable and with such variations and additions as may be necessary.
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