Page:An essay on the transfer of land by registration.djvu/27

 their fortunes in buildings and other improvements thereon. If it be borne in mind that at the time of granting the indefeasible title, possession must have been in the applicant, the case of the rightful heir will be seen in its true light, as one of exclusion, not of extrusion, and capable of being compensated by a money payment, without inflicting hardship. On the other hand, a great economic principle is subserved by a system which gives the encouragement of security to the employment of capital in improving land, the practical result of which has been already to add largely to the wealth of the community, by restoring to their intrinsic value as building sites, many blocks of land deprived of that special value by technical defects and uncertainties attaching to the title.

Instruments marked with certificate of registration are held to be embodied constructively in the register. One original of each is filed in the Registry Office, the other is held by the party entitled. This duplicate system is of essential service, both as facilitating dealings and safeguarding against fraud, as explained in a future chapter.

A registered proprietor may, at any time, on payment of a trifling fee, in exchange for his existing certificate of title obtain a fresh one from which the memorials of all released mortgages, encumbrances, and other charges, or lesser estates which have ceased to be operative or to affect the land, would be omitted. The registrar also is empowered, whenever he may deem a certificate of title to be inconveniently encumbered with memorials of defunct charges and other lesser estates, to require the registered proprietor to take out a fresh certificate freed from such defunct memorials.

Under this method accumulation of instruments of title with voluminous indexes, the fatal objection to other systems, is avoided, as each separate estate, or interest in each parcel of land is represented by one instrument only, which instrument is held by the registered proprietor, and discloses all