Page:An essay on the transfer of land by registration.djvu/19

 Another case:—A lodged £1,500 with his solicitor to be invested on mortgage. The solicitor forged a mortgage deed of lands of B for the amount, and registered it. For some years the interest was paid with exemplary punctuality. Ultimately, A and B happening to meet and becoming communicative, the fraud was discovered. The solicitor bolted. A lost his money. This could not have occurred had registration of title been in operation, because, instead of the fraud being concocted in the privacy of the solicitor's office, the mortgagor, mortgagee, and attesting witnesses would be required to attend at the public office of the registrar or other authorised functionary to establish their identity. by prescribed formalities, and produce B's certificate of tide for endorsement of the mortgage by the Registrar.

Against these and other frauds, such as that practised by the notorious Downs, who succeeded in mortgaging the same property to fourteen different persons, each of whom believed it to be unencumbered, a further safeguard is provided under my duplicate system of conducting "registration of titles;" for although it might be possible to forge a certificate of title, it would be quite impossible to get the forged duplicate bound up in the register-book, and consequently the intending mortgagee or purchaser applying for the customary "certificate of search" (cost 2S. 6d.) before completing, would immediately learn the true state of the case.

Amongst the more damaging incidents arising out of the retrospective or derivative character of titles under the system presently in force in this country, I would mention the inevitable tendency to produce what are generally designated "blistered titles"—that is, titles which in the opinion of the most punctilious conveyancers would be pronounced good holding titles, yet, owing to some technical defect, cannot be forced upon an unwilling purchaser, and may even interfere with the power to eject a tortuous holder in possession. Such a condition of affairs cannot arise under "registration