owned as single entities are now being replaced by cards, and steady progress in this work was made during the year 1971-72. All instru- ments relating to new lots, sections and subsections are also being registered on cards.
28. Every instrument presented for registration in the Land Office, together with the memorial thereof, is scrutinized prior to its regis- tration. Where any error is discovered in any instrument or memorial, the instrument is 'stopped' and returned for correction to the solicitors certifying the memorial. Of the 77,552 instruments registered in 1971- 72, 21,823 (28%) were 'stopped' for the correction of a total of 41,477 errors, which fell into the following categories:
Omission of dates/Memorial Nos./Chinese characters Incorrect spelling of words/typing errors
Incorrect description of parcels
•
Stopped because of errors found in connected instrument
Incorrect/insufficient description of parties
10,610
9,003
6,432
4,000
3,962
Authentication of amendments/deletions/additions required
2,871
Incorrect/insufficient registration fee
1,092
Incorrect/insufficient stamp duty
671
Incorrect/insufficient execution
545
Incorrect/insufficient information on partition
504
Incorrect/insufficient description of Crown rent
493
Incorrect/insufficient description of plan
490
Suggestion by Land Office for improvement of instrument Incorrect/insufficient description of consideration
Land Officer's consent required for registration of instrument..
Total...
41,477
391
250
163
Searches
29. An essential preliminary to every land transaction is a search in the land registers to ascertain who is registered as the owner of the property and what, if any, incumbrances are registered against it. Under the Land Registration Fees Regulations, a fee of $1 is payable for each record produced, but where more than one hundred records relating to the same subdivided building are produced at the same time the fee is $100. To facilitate the operation of this system, books of one hundred $1 search tickets are available for purchase, one ticket being surrendered for each record produced. The books are purchased mainly by solicitors, whose clerks are engaged in frequent searches of the records.
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