APPENDIX TO REPORT FROM THE LAND COMMISSION OF 1886-87.
Appendix No. 3.
19
PETITION TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL SIGNED BY ALL THE SOLICITORS IN THE COLONY'
AND SUPPORTED BY SEVERAL OF THE LEADING INHABITANTS, TRANSMITTING
A BILL FOR DEALING WITH LAND QUESTIONS DATED 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, how- ever 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 con- clusively proves, is frequently a law-suit.
IV. In consequence of the legal difficulties above referred to attaching to transmissions 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.
(2.)—That having regard to the manner in which the Crown Lots in this Colony have been and are still being divided into Sections and such Sections into Sub-sections, and the difficulty, and in some cases the impos- sibility, thus occasioned in tracing and obtaining production of such of the Title Deeds as relate to the whole of the Crown Lot or Section before such division, it would greatly facilitate and cheapen the trans- mission of land if a system for filing official copies of all Deeds which have now to be registered in the Land Office were legalized, either by duplicate copies of such deeds being left with the originals, or by such originals being copied by clerks to be appointed for the purpose, such official copies to be taken and received as evidence of the originals, and if certified copies of the memorials of all such deeds as have already been registered were (unless and except so far as they should be proved to be inaccurate) to be taken to be sufficient evidence of the deed and of the due execution thereof so far as the same were exemplified in the
memorial.
VI. Your said petitioners also discussed several other points of practice and procedure, and came unanimously to the conclusion that without the aid of state legislation nothing effectual could be accomplished towards rescuing the land question of the Colony from its present hopeless and entangled position.
VIP The accompanying draft form of Ordinance has been prepared by your said petitioners after careful considera- tion and regard to the special nature of the requirements of the practice of conveyancing in the Colony.