Page:An essay on the transfer of land by registration.djvu/34

 of the shipping act to land in nine of the principal colonies, has become so popularly known that the negation of its practicability has had to be abandoned, and the opponents of the measure have recently dwelt upon the argument that (to use the language of the Royal Commissioners) "the success of the system in the Australasian Colonies would only mislead us were we to attempt to imitate them, because in these colonies the land has been recently granted out by the Crown, after official survey." Now it is a fact that the official survey here referred to is so inaccurate that it constituted the most serious difficulty we had to deal with in locating parcels and defining boundaries, there being in many cases no occupation, and survey marks obliterated. In this respect the conditions existing in this country, where ancient hedge-rows and parish bound-stones afford ready means of identification, are far more favourable. The evidence of Col. Leach is conclusive on this point (see his evidence before the Royal Commission, Queries 318—390, and 441). "The cases in which we have to require a new survey are very few; as a rule, the tithe maps are found to be sufficiently correct. I may say that our entire expenses, including the examination of documents, the perambulation of the property, and the preparation of maps, &c., have varied from about £3, the lowest, to £20, the highest. Since the commencement of work, we have not found the slightest difficulty, either as regards maps, or as ascertaining all necessary particulars respecting the boundaries of the properties registered."

To the argument from the more recent origin of titles in the colonies, it is only necessary to observe that many of the titles there dealt with, and those amongst the most valuable, date back sixty years or upwards; and that, owing in part to unskilful conveyancing in the earlier days, and in part to the frequency of dealings with land in new countries, complications and difficulties, no less grievous than those which oppress the landed interest in this country, had been superinduced upon comparatively recent titles.