The principle next in importance prescribes that registration _per se_
and alone shall give validity to transactions affecting land. Deposit of
duplicate of the instrument, together with the record of the transaction
by memorandum entered in the book of registration and endorsed on the
grant by the Registrar-General, to constitute registration. This method
is designed to give confidence and security to purchasers and
mortgagees, through the certainty that nothing affecting the title can
have existence beyond the transactions of which they have notice in the
memoranda endorsed on the grant.
My third principle aims at simplicity and economy by prescribing certain
stereotyped forms of instruments available to each occasion to be
supplied at the Registry Office, so that any man of ordinary sense and
education may transact his own business, without the necessity of
applying to a solicitor, except in complicated cases of settlements or
entails, which are unusual in this colony.
Many will admit that the system which I recommend might have been
introduced at the first founding of this colony, with facility and very
great advantage, but doubt its practicability now that titles have
become complicated. Admitting a difficulty, I deny that it is
insurmountable, or such as should cause us to hesitate in securing the
advantage of transfer by registration. I do not propose a scheme
involving violent or arbitrary interference with existing titles, but
would leave it optional with proprietors to avail themselves of it or
not. It will thus be gradual in its operation, yet will put titles in
such a train that the desired result will eventually be obtained.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot conclude without expressing my grateful sense of
the compliment which the House has paid me, in listening with such
marked attention to an address extended to an unusual length upon a
subject admitted to be dry and unexciting.
I propose, it is true, a sweeping measure of reform, yet not more
thorough than the nature of the case imperatively demands. In this view,
I am again borne out by the high authority of Lord Brougham, who, in a
speech which I have before quoted, thus expresses himself: "The present
system has grown out of ingenious devices to evade the oppressions of
feudal tyrants, but under it we are subject to the tyranny of the legal
profession, and burdens little less grievous. The reform, to be
effectual, must be thorough. _Delenda est Carthaga_ must be our motto."
THE LAND QUESTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES
+Source.+--Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History (Sir Henry
Parkes, 1892), pp. 70-71, 81-90, 148, 153
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account