Page:An essay on the transfer of land by registration.djvu/59

 the Real Property Act came into force is now brought under the operation of that Act. The amount so alienated since that date is 3,826,634, which, being all under the Real Property Act, if added to the quantity brought under it by application, gives 3,913,947 acres under the Act, being about 98 per cent, of all the lands alienated."

From the reply of the Registrar-General of New Zealand, I extract the following:—"There are few questions incident to conveyancing with which the Land Transfer Department is not called upon to deal. Titles complicated by wills, settlements, &c., are not unfrequent, and the system of caveats is found sufficient for the conservation of trusts, whilst life estates, and estates in reversion or remainder, are fully capable of demonstration on the register. In fact, the system so far has been found equal to all purposes of conveyancing."

The Registrar-General of Victoria replies: "The proportion of land under the Act is now about 7,557,715 acres, or nearly one-eighth of the whole land of the colony. Titles of every sort and kind, simple and complicated, have been registered, and from the value of £5 to £100,000 and more. The facilities for carrying out mortgages and paying them off are very great, and thoroughly appreciated by the public. The expense of either transaction is comparatively trifling."

The reply of the Registrar-General of New South Wales contains the following:—"Although the Act has been in operation eighteen years, no compensation has been made for the deprivation of property, nor has any claim been sustained against the Assurance Fund, which at the present time amounts to £38,060. The popularity of the Act is so well secured, and the public generally have become so accustomed to our certificates, and have such faith in their undoubted value, as in many instances to decline accepting a property unless the title is registered under what is universally styled Torrens' system."

The Registrar-General of Tasmania, in his reply, states:—'The Real Property Act has now been in operation in this