1887-1903
COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS
19
the vendor a yearly sum to meet the tax which the vendor continued to pay as before.
This was frequently done even when the vendor parted with the whole of the land held by him under a red deed when in order to save the purchaser the trouble and expense of registration the latter took a white or unregistered deed as evidence between himself and the vendor of the transaction and of the payment of the purchase money. might also get the original red deed to be kept as security against subsequent dealings with the land by his vendor. Thus the taxes were still paid in the old name though the land had passed into other hands.
It is possible I think to find in one or other of these sources the origin of all the clan claims in the New Territory. This is to say: either a clan has forced later immigrants to pay to itself an imposition under the name of land tax; or the clan (or individual members of it) has parted with land under a white deed and still continues to be responsible for the
tax.
Ownership of Land, how acquired.
329
11. It may not be amiss to recapitulate briefly the various methods of acquiring land in the New Territory.
First by grant from the Crown.-On application to the District Magistrate for unoccupied waste, or for newly formed alluvial land, a notice was posted reciting the application. Then, after five months if no objection had been lodged a grant issued stating the area and class of the land and the tax payable.
Secondly by purchase. The law required that every deed of sale should be registered and the amount of tax due transferred into the purchaser's name. In most cases the instrument was not registered, the vendor continuing to pay the tax and the purchaser indemnifying him by a yearly contribution. It was however usual in such cases as I have stated above for the vendor to hand over the prior registered deed to the purchaser to secure the latter against any subsequent dealings with it to his prejudice.
The Perpetual Lease.
12. Thirdly by perpetual lease. This was by far the most common method of dealing with land in the New Territory.
The effect of a grant of land from the Crown was really to make the grantee a perpetual lessee subject to the payment of the proper Crown Rent. Something analogous was adopted by private individuals. When the transaction was intended to be registered it was usually called a sale, being in effect the transfer of the perpetual lease granted by the Crown from the vendor to the purchaser who took the place of the former as the person inscribed as tax-payer in the register. When as was usually the case it was preferred to dispense with registration, a sale was inconvenient, for it left the vendor responsible for the tax and without any covenant of indemnity from the purchaser. On the other hand under a perpetual lease the purchaser got practically the full rights of ownership and could mortgage or lease or even sell the property provided always that the rent reserved under the old lease was punctually paid. The vendor got an annual sum sufficient to indemnify him for the tax to be paid but had otherwise no further interest in the land,
13. I have said that the annual sum reserved was sufficient to indemnify the vendor for the tax it was supposed he would continue to pay, but its amount was often very much larger than this. Frequently the rent under a perpetual lease is a full rack rent the explanation no doubt being that in such cases the true relationship of landlord and tenant exists and that through habit people in the New Territory have come to prefer this form of alienation to a regular sale.
14. The perpetual lease was sometimes in writing but very much oftener it was oral merely and so general was it, and so popular that it seems
10037
B 2
1887-1903
COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS
19
the vendor a yearly sum to meet the tax which the vendor continued to pay as before.
This was frequently done even when the vendor parted with the whole of the land held by him under a red deed when in order to save the purchaser the trouble and expense of registration the latter took a white or unregistered deed as evidence between himself and the vendor of the transaction and of the payment of the purchase money. might also get the original red deed to be kept as security against subse- quent dealings with the land by his vendor. Thus the taxes were still paid in the old name though the land had passed into other hands.
It is possible I think to find in one or other of these sources the origin of all the clan claims in the New Territory. This is to say: either a clan has forced later immigrants to pay to itself an imposition under the name of land tax; or the clan (or individual members of it) has parted with land under a white deed and still continues to be responsible for the
tax.
Ownership of Land, how acquired.
329
11. It may not be amiss to recapitulate briefly the various methods of acquiring land in the New Territory.
First by grant from the Crown.-On application to the District Magis- trate for unoccupied waste, or for newly formed alluvial land, a notice was posted reciting the application. Then, after five months if no objec- tion had been lodged a grant issued stating the area and class of the land and the tax payable.
Secondly by purchase. The law required that every deed of sale should be registered and the amount of tax due transferred into the purchaser's name. In most cases the instrument was not registered, the vendor con- tinuing to pay the tax and the purchaser indemnifying him by a yearly contribution. It was however usual in such cases as I have stated above for the vendor to hand over the prior registered deed to the purchaser to secure the latter against any subsequent dealings with it to his pre- judice.
The Perpetual Lease.
12. Thirdly by perpetual lease. This was by far the most common method of dealing with land in the New Territory.
The effect of a grant of land from the Crown was really to make the grantee a perpetual lessee subject to the payment of the proper Crown Rent. Scmething analogous was adopted by private individuals. When the transaction was intended to be registered it was usually called a sale, being in effect the transfer of the perpetual lease granted by the Crown from the vendor to the purchaser who took the place of the former as the person inscribed as tax-payer in the register. When as was usually the case it was preferred to dispense with registration, a sale was in- convenient, for it left the vendor responsible for the tax and without any covenant of indemnity from the purchaser. On the other hand under a perpetual lease the purchaser got practically the full rights of ownership and could mortgage or lease or even sell the property provided always that the rent reserved under the old lease was punctually paid. The vendor got an annual sum sufficient to indemnify him for the tax to be paid but had otherwise no further interest in the land,
13. I have said that the annual sum reserved was sufficient to indemnify the vendor for the tax it was supposed he would continue to pay, but its amount was often very much larger than this. Frequently the rent under a perpetual lease is a full rack rent the explanation no doubt being that in such cases the true relationship of landlord and tenant exists and that through habit people in the New Territory have come to prefer this form of alienation to a regular sale.
14. The perpetual lease was sometimes in writing but very much oftener it was oral merely and so general was it, and so popular that it seems
10037
B 2
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