ENG-1960 — Page 250

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LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS

overseas British territory, as it combines the functions of Land Officer with the other more usual general functions. It is staffed professionally by solicitors, which makes the combination of duties effective and efficient.

Land Office. The Land Officer combines two principal functions. He is the Land Registrar and the Government Conveyancer for grants of Crown land.

The Land Office is a public office for the registration of all instruments affecting land. Failure to register makes the instrument void against any subsequent purchaser or mortgagee of the land for valuable consideration. Registration is effected by delivering a memorial containing particulars of the instrument to the Land Office, the procedure being similar to that of the Deeds Registries set up in Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. The Land Officer maintains one index of the names of the parties to the instruments, and a second identifying the parcels affected by the instrument with a reference to the number of the memorial. In the New Territories registration is not done in the Land Office itself, but in one or other of the five District Offices. The index of parcels has been kept in the form of a register from which the entries to any particular lot or portion of a lot may quickly be ascertained. Because of this method of maintaining the register comprising the index of parcels, the Land Office system has become in fact although not in law a system of registration of title. As a result, if it were ever decided to introduce a system of formal registration of title, the conversion process would be a relatively simple task. Land tenure is described in Chapters 7 and 10.

As Government Conveyancer for grants of land by the Crown, the Land Officer acts as Government Solicitor in all matters re- lating to the sale, grant and exchange of Crown land. All Crown leases including mining leases are drafted and issued by the Land Officer, and also any deeds or documents varying the terms of such leases. As a result of his professional and practical experi- ence, the Land Officer acts as one of the Government's advisers on land matters in general.

One of the methods for financing development, particularly residential development, which building owners use is neither to sell a whole building nor to retain it and let it in separate por- tions, but to sell individual self-contained units within the building.