Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 4.djvu/290

274 274 HARVARD LAW REVIEW, and conveyances, of the extent and complexity of which we have already so much reason to complain." Moreover, so far from affording security against fraud, it actually opens the door to new and distinct species of fraud. But it has been reserved for another branch of our race, while engaged in carrying the light of English civilization into another continent, under conditions of life not unlike those with which we ourselves have had to contend, to solve the problem which has hitherto baffled us here, and it is to Australia that we must look for the first establishment among English-speaking people of an absolutely safe and practicable system of registration. The difference between the two systems is fundamental. Here we have registration of deeds; in AustraHa, not registration of deeds, but registration of titles. There it is not on the execution and delivery of an instrument, but upon the entry in the Register, that the title passes. The Australian system avoids, as its orig- inator, the late Sir Robert R. Torrens, truly says, " the accumula- tion of instruments with voluminous indexes, the fatal objection to other systems." Registration under the Real Property Act is not compulsory, but optional. No one is obliged to register his title, but having once made choice of the new method, he cannot afterward convey his property by deed. It is " under the Act," as it is called. The course of procedure is simple, and is as follows : — In Australia the land-owner who wishes to avail himself of the benefit of the Act — and it maybe repeated that it is entirely optional with him — makes application to the Registrar-General. His application, together with the deeds, other evidences and abstracts of title, with a plan of the land duly certified, are sub- mitted to the official examiners of titles. They proceed to ex- amine the title just as is done here for a purchaser under the old system, and make report to the Registrar-General. If the applicant is found to have a good title, the land is brought under the operation of the Act by the issue of a certificate of title vest- ing the estate indefeasibly in the applicant. If the title proves to be bad, the application is rejected. If the appHcant is found to be in possession of the land under a good holding title, that is, if he appears rightfully entitled to it, and the evidence is such as to lead to the conclusion that no other person is likely to succeed against him in an action for ejectment,