CAB37-17 — Page 203

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Examination of title and registry of leaseholds.

Part IL- Transfers

( i )

(6.) Rights of fishing and sporting, seignorial and manorial rights of all descriptions, and franchises, exerciseable over the regis tered lands; and

(7.) Leases or agreements for leases and other tenancies for any term not exceeding twenty-one years, or for any less estate, in cases where there is an occupation under such tenancies. On the registry of long leaseholds an examination of the leasehold title is required, and the applicant cannot be registered until he has proved his title to the satisfaction of the registrar. He may or may not require an examination of the title of the lessor. When the registry is completed, the proprietor is furnished in the case of free- hold land with a land certificate as documentary evidence of his title, and in the case of leasehold land with official copy of the lease, called the office lease.

Part II. of the Act.—This relates to transfers and transmissions, and transmis- and here the analogy of registers of stocks and shares has been sions of title. followed, as far as the difference in the nature of the property would admit. A transfered for valuable consideration takes an estate for his own benefit, while a voluntary transferee takes an estate subject to any equities affecting the property, but both the one and the other have the same power of transferring the estate to a purchaser. The transmission of freehold estates is provided for by declaring that the registrar may appoint a successor on the death of a sole proprietor or the survivor of several joint proprietors.

Parts III. and IV. of Act.

Part V. pro-

Parts III, and IV. of the Act provide for unregistered dispositions, and their protection by cautions and inhibitions.

The office is constituted of a registrar, and an assistant registrar, vides for the with clerks, messengers, and servants. It is situated in London, in

Staple Inn.

constitution

of the Office

of Land Registry.

Necessity of motive power to

make Bill of 1876 work.

The machinery of the Act of 1875 would appear to be adequate for all the purposes of registration of title. Indeed, in some respects it is rather encumbered by the multitude of its provisions for the protection of unregistered dispositions. What is wanted is a motive power to make this machinery work.

The object of the present Bill is, if possible, to provide motive power. In considering this subject, it would seem to be expedient to provide for the organization of a board so qualified and interested as to be able and willing to devote their attention to the develop- ment of the system of registration. At present the registrar has usually to consider, before an estate can be registered, com- plicated title, and to pass his opinion on it. Necessarily such a task involves great labour, and induces

a disinclination to

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