Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 4.djvu/292

276 2je HARVARD LAW REVIEW, application, goes to form an Assurance Fund, which is kept in- vested in Government bonds. This fund, as it is seldom drawn upon, has increased in all of the colonies to large proportions. That the transaction is a safe one for the Government is shown by the fact that for eighteen years not a single claim against it was sustained, either in New South Wales or in Tasmania. As the title is carefully examined, it is not probable that an outstand- ing interest would be overlooked any more than now under our present system. But if through any mischance such a claimant should afterwards appear, he would have his claim on the fund provided for just such a contingency. This compensation in money payment is more just and equitable than to reinstate him in possession of the land. But in actual practice, experience has shown that such a case is of the rarest occurrence, and this con- sideration need not delay us. These certificates are in duplicate. They define the land by description, by reference to officially recognized plans, or where necessary by diagram on the certificate, and set forth the nature of the estate of the applicant, whether in fee simple or not, noting by endorsement all lesser estates, leases, mortgages, or other interests affecting the land at the time. One of these certificates of title is given to the applicant; the other is retained by the Registrar-General. The official Register is formed by binding together the dupli- cates of all these certificates so retained by him. Each of these certificates represents a distinct title and constitutes a distinct folium of the Register. In case of sale of the land, the memorial of the transfer may be entered on the existing certificate, or that may be surrendered, and a fresh certificate may be taken out in the name of the purchaser. This will, in its turn, form a fresh root of title, and will occupy a separate folium of the Register. A registered land-owner may at any time in exchange for his original certificate procure a fresh one from which all mention of mortgages which have been paid off and discharged, and of leases which have terminated, and all other encumbrances which have ceased to exist, are omitted. The Registrar also can require the owner, when his certificate is too much encumbered with such dead matter, to take out a new one free from all such defunct charges. Land once brought under the Act cannot be conveyed by