Page:An essay on the transfer of land by registration.djvu/60

 colony for more than eighteen years, during which time 13,714 dealings, all sorts included, have been registered, and I consider that indefeasibility of title has been practically secured, inasmuch as I am not aware of any case in which a registered title has been upset upon reference to the law courts. More than one-sixth of all the lands alienated from the Crown in this colony are now under the Act. It may therefore, I think, be predicated that the majority of transactions in real property will soon be conducted through the Lands Titles Office, which may now be considered the statutory conveyancer of the colony."

The Registrar-General of British Columbia sums up the results of the measure in that colony thus:—" The title to real property has been greatly simplified, without radical changes in the general law. Stability of title, with safety to purchasers and mortgagees, has been secured. The ownership of property, both in town and country, is shown by the register at a glance, and whether encumbered or not. It increases the saleable value of property. It enables both vendors and purchasers to accurately ascertain the expense of carrying out any sale or transfer. It protects trusts, estates, and beneficiaries. It prevents frauds, and protects purchasers and mortgagees, and has operated so as to almost entirely dispense with the investigation of prior title. Loans on mortgage are effected, and transfers of the fee are made, with as much ease as the transfer of bank stock is made in England, a search of from five to ten minutes being all that is necessary to disclose the state of any registered title."

Lest it should be supposed that the highly favourable testimony given above may be coloured by official prejudice, I will quote briefly from a letter recently addressed to me by the Hon. Thomas Holt, many years a distinguished member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, and from a recent work, "A Glance at Australia in 1880," by Mr. J. Franklyn [sic]. Mr. Holt says: "The working men of New South