deeds, etc., other than bona fide leases at rack rents for any term not exceeding three years, which are not registered shall, as against any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration, be absolutely null and void. No notice, actual or constructive, of any prior unregistered instrument affects the priority of any duly registered instrument. Legally the system is one of registration of deeds and not of title; but in view of the above provisions instruments relating to land are always registered promptly after execution, and the Land Registers show the devolution of title to each property and all incumbrances on it. The result is that in practice the system is regarded as virtually equivalent to registration of title.
4. Among the other functions of the Land Officer are the checking and registration of Conditions of Sale, Grant, and Exchange of Crown land, the issue, renewal, variation and termination of Crown Leases, the granting of Mining Leases, and advising the Government generally on matters relating to land.
Deeds Registration
5. Table II shows the numbers of instruments registered for each year since 1950/51; Table III, the numbers of instruments registered by categories for each year since 1955/56; and Table IV, the total con- siderations in the principal categories for each year since 1950/51.
6. 1959/60 was another year of intense building activity, and as in each of the six preceding years there was a record number of instruments registered. There was, however, as will be seen from Table II, an appreciable slowing down in the rate of increase as compared with the two preceding years, the 1959/60 total of 20,401 being only 11% more than the previous year's total, as against increases of 184% and 22% in 1958/59 and 1957/58 respectively. The increased number of deeds registered in 1959/60 was due mainly to a substantial increase in the number of assignments from 8,116 in 1958/59 to 9,980. This jump in the number of assignments is attributable to the fact that during 1959/60 many large blocks of flats were completed, and the flats sold off as separate units. The standard procedure in such sales is to assign an undivided share in the land coupled with the right to the exclusive possession of a flat or floor in the building. The tendency is towards smaller and smaller units. Shares as small as a 1/920th and flats as small as 520 square feet have been recorded. So rapid has been the
2
Page 10Page 11