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note, under the hand and seal of the proper officer, of the fact of such registration is "made on both duplicates of the instrument. Such note is conclusive evidence that "the instrument has been duly registered; one of the duplicates is then filed in the "office, and the other is handed to the mortgagee, or lessee. The certificate of title will thus show that the original proprietor is entitled to the land it describes, sub- "ject to the mortgage, lease, or encumbrance; while the duplicate instrument held by the mortgagee, lessee, or encumbrancee, will shew precisely the nature of his "interest. Each person has and can have but one document of title, and this shows conclusively the nature of the interest he holds, and to that interest his title is "indefensible. If a mortgage is paid off, a simple receipt is indorsed on the duplicate "mortgage held by the mortgagee. This is brought to the office, and the fact that "the mortgage has been paid off is noted on the certificate of title. Here a striking "inconvenience of the old system is done away with. Few things are more per- plexing to simple minds than the necessity which that system imposes of a deed of "reconveyance when a mortgage has been paid off. A nortgage under the Act does not involve a transfer of the 'legal estate,' although the mortgagee is made as secure as if such transfer had taken place. The necessity, therefore, for a deed of reconveyance, when the mortgage is paid off, at once vanishes. If a lease is to be "surrendered, it has merely to be brought to the office with the word 'surrendered

indorsed upon it, signed by the lessor and lessee, and attested, and the proper "officer will note the fact that it has been surrendered, on the certificate of title. "Mortgages or leases are transferred by indorsement, by a simple form. The Act provides implied powers of sale and foreclosure in mortgages; and in leases, implied covenants to pay rent and taxes, and to keep in repair, together with power for the lessor to enter and view the state of repair, and to re-enter in case of non-payment of rent or breach of covenant. All these may be omitted or modified "if desired. In order to save verbiage, short forms are provided, which may be used "for covenants in leases or mortgages, the longer forms which they imply being set "out in the Act. Thus, in a lease, the words will not without leave assign or sub- ler,' imply a covenant that the said lessee shall not, nor will, during the term of "of such lease, assign, transfer, demise, sublet or set over, or otherwise, by any act "or deed, procure the lands or premises therein mentioned, or any part thereof, to "be assigned, transferred, demised, sublet, or set over, to any person whomsoever, " without the consent in writing of the said lessor first had and obtained.'

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29. Every person, therefore, entitled to a freehold estate in possession, has (if his land is subject to the Act) a certificate of title, or land-grant, on which are recorded memorials of all mortgages, leases, or encumbrances, and of their discharge or sur- "render. If he transfers his entire interest, a memorial of the transfer is recorded "on the certificate, and the transferee takes it subject to recorded interests. The "transferee can, if he chooses, have a fresh certificate issued in his own name, and "in that case the old certificate is cancelled, and the memorials of the leases or mortgages to which the land is subject are carried forward to the new one. If a "proprietor transfers only a part of his land, his certificate is cancelled so far, a fresh certificate is issued, and memorials of outstanding interests are similarly carried "forward. Memorials of dealings with leases or mortgages are noted on the dupli- "cate lease or mortgage held by the lessee or mortgagee, and on the folium of the "register book. The Officers of the Department. therefore, and persons searching, can see at a glance the whole of the recorded dealings with every property; while each person interested can see, by the one document he holds, the precise

extent of his interest.

30. The foregoing extracts give a very clear exposition of the general effect of the system of transfer by registration. It cannot be too emphatically pointed out that it is "not the execution of the memorandum of transfer, lease, or mortgage, but its regis- "tration in the Lands Titles Office, that operates to shift the title.

No instrument, "until registered in the manner prescribed by the Act, is effectual to pass any estate or interest in any land under the operation of the Act, or to render such land liable "to any mortgage or charge; but upon such registration, the estate or interest com- prised in the instrument passes, or the legal effect of the transaction, whatever it 'may be, is complete. Registration takes effect from the time of production of the "instrument, not from the time of the actual making of the entry."

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26. There must be 100,000 separate lots of land held in individual ownership in the New Terri- tory and of these probably 90,000 are in the country to the North of the Kowloon Watershed.

Land to the South of this range and bordering on the harbour might very well remain under the ordinary land system of the Colony; it is only for land which will in most cases remain in the hands of the peasant cultivators that I recommend a new departure.