Sessional_Paper_1886-1887 — Page 482

REPORT FROM THE LAND COMMISSION Of 1886-87.

XXV

The Commissioners themselves are very strongly of opinion that there should be constituted, at once, a Crown Land Board to whom all applications for Land, or for in any way dealing with Crown property, should in the first instance be submitted; and they are of opinion that there ought to be no more difficulty in dealing with Crown property in this Colony than in dealing with any well managed large estate in England. That, indeed, there ought to be less as there can be no difficulty in obtaining any legislative powers that may be considered necessary or desirable. That the Surveyor General should be the Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. That for the present the Land Officer and the Attorney General should be members of the Board, but that, if the recommendations of the Commissioners are eventually carried out, the Special Commissioner for investigating Titles, or Judge of the Land Court, should be substituted for the Attorney General, and it should be the particular business of the Officers, other than the Surveyor General, to see, in conjunction with him, that the decisions of the Board, when approved by the Governor, are duly carried into effect and that all legal requirements and formalities are complied with. The Commissioners think that there ought to be frequent, say weekly, sittings of the Board in order to dispose of current business. The Commissioners think that such a Board if constituted with the necessary powers, with a good Secretary, and a proper staff, might proceed at once to deal with a great many cases which are at present in a state of entan- glement. Under the present law relating to registration the difficulties as to accepting a surrender are not very great; the chief things that are required in order to accepting a surrender and granting a New Lease, if the Title on the Register is clear, are consent of all parties interested; proofs of possession under the Title, and of identity, and these might be easily provided for by requiring advertisement of application for some fixed time before a surrender is accepted.

If, in addition to this, proceedings by way of scire facias to set aside a Crown Lease were provided for (see Regina v. Hughes L. R. 1 P. C. 81), by making the Leases records of the Court, the Com- missioners think that no wrong could be inflicted upon any one for which there would not be an adequate remedy.

There are, however, many Titles the Commissioners feel sure for which further provision would have to be made either by the appointment of a Special Commissioner or the formation of a Land Court with special powers, and the nature of those special powers the Commissioners think the Crown Land Board would be in a far better position than themselves to suggest after some experience of the nature of the difficulties to be surmounted.

The Commissioners would have to receive, either from the Crown or by Ordinance, greater powers than have been given to the Governor or to the Surveyor General for the purpose of dealing with the land, and the Commissioners think it advisable that some rules should be laid down for their guidance within which they, with the approval of the Governor, should have given them large dis- cretionary powers.

The Commissioners would also recommend that possessory rights, and also claims to easements, should be taken into consideration, as between individuals, where they would be sustained by Law, and even as against the Crown where they could not be so sustained, as far as possible, but the Commissioners would recommend that in the new Registration Ordinance, that they propose should be framed, no rights to Land or easement should be allowed by virtue of mere possession, or user, unless they appear in the Register. These claims are generally founded either on force or on fraud, and the Commissioners conceive no harm can be done to any person by refusing to recognise claims which are not founded upon matters of record.

The Commission recommend that trespassing should be entirely put a stop to, and the system of squatting abolished.

With regard to original holders of Land, at the time of the occupation of the Colony, their assignees and descendants who can prove their claims, the Commissioners consider that great liberality