page 15

Instructions for Conducting Transfers and other Dealings with Land, applicable to Instruments generally.

1. The prescribed forms of memorandum of transfer, lease, mortgage, &c., &c., may be procured at any District Land Registry Office. These instruments, when filled up, executed, and attested in manner hereinafter described, and (except transfers of an estate of freehold in possession) in duplicate, may be presented at the District Land Registry Office by the party claiming thereunder, or by any person acting on his behalf. In every case, the words "Correct for the purposes of the Land Transfer Act," signed by the party claiming under the instrument, or by his Broker or Solicitor, must be indorsed thereon. No instrument can be registered unless in accordance with the provisions of the land Transfer Act, but the prescribed forms may be used with such alterations as the character of the parties or circumstances of the case may render necessary, and no variation from them, except in matter of substance, will affect their validity. Care should be taken that none of the parties to any instrument (except in mortgages to Building Societies) are described as trustees, and no mention, direct or indirect, should be made of any trust. All instruments must be properly stamped previously to being presented. The stamp duties are shown in the Schedule. The duplicates of each instrument are not liable to stamp duty.

2. The 112th section of the Land Transfer Act subjects to a penalty of fifty pounds any person who shall falsely or negligently certify to the correctness of any instrument. Persons transacting business are cautioned that this penalty will be strictly enforced.

3. The prescribed fees must be paid at the time of presenting the instrument.

4. No instrument on which an erasure is detected will be received for registration. Mistakes may he corrected by scoring the pen through the words written in error, and writing the correct words over them; in every such case the words scored out and interlined must be initialed by the party executing the same and by the attesting witness.

5. Every instrument affecting any estate or interest in land under the Land Transfer Act must be signed by the registered page 16 proprietor who contracts to deal with that estate or interest. The signature must be attested by one witness.

6. The contracting proprietor may attend personally at the Registry Office and execute the instrument in presence of the Registrar or some other officer of the Department; otherwise . the execution may be attested by any known and credible witness, but in such case the District Land Registrar may require that such execution be proved before a Registrar or Justice of the Peace, who will notify such proof by a certificate to that effect, under his hand, indorsed upon the instrument in form N or O of the Land Transfer Act.

7. Before granting such certificate, the Registrar or Justice will require the contracting proprietor, if be attend and is personally known to him, to acknowledge that "he did freely and voluntarily sign such instrument;" but if the contracting proprietor docs not attend, or is not known to such Registrar or Justice, the witness who attested the signature will be required to answer the following questions, on oath or under statutory declaration: "Are you the witness who attested the signing of this instrument; and is the name or mark purporting to be your name or mark as such attesting witness, your own handwriting?" "Do you personally know A.B., the person signing this instru-ment, and whose signature you attested?" "Is the name purporting to be his signature, his own handwriting ?—is he of sound mind—and did he freely and voluntarily sign the same?"

8. The acknowledgment or proof of execution of instruments may occasionally be dispensed with, when the signature of the party executing or of the attesting witness is known to the Registrar.

9. When instruments affecting land under the Land Transfer Act are executed at places without the limit of the colony, the execution must be acknowledged or proved in manner above described. If in Great Britain or Ireland, then before the Mayor or chief officer of a Corporation, or before a Notary Public. If in a British possession, then before a Judge of any superior Court; or before the Governor, Government Resident, or Chief Secretary. If in a foreign place, then before the British Consular Officer.

10. When the property to be dealt with comprises the entire of the lands included under any existing grant or grants, receipt page 17 or receipts from the Government for the purchase-money of land, or other official document of title for land not Crown-granted, or under any certificate or certificates, lease, mortgage, or incumbrance, or comprises the entire of any allotment or allotments in any township, the plan of which has been deposited in terms of the Land Transfer Act, a reference to such instrument or plan for the description of the property will suffice, and a diagram will not be required. When the property to he dealt with comprises part only of the lands included in any such instrument, or allotment, the portion to be dealt with must be minutely described and delineated in a diagram, accurately drawn to scale on the margin of the instrument intended to be registered, or annexed thereto, certified by declaration of a licensed surveyor, which declaration must be made before the District Land Registrar or a Justice of the Peace.

11. The diagram is occasionally dispensed with if the description given be sufficient to enable the draftsman of the department to delineate the subdivision with the aid of a deposited plan, or of the diagram on the existing grant or certificate of title, or other instrument. In cases, however, where the land has not been Crown-granted, and part only of any section is dealt with, the diagram is never dispensed with, and evidence from the Government Survey Office will also be required as to the identity of the land and the correctness of the plan and description.

12. Whenever the land to he dealt with is vested in a married woman, the acknowledgment of such married woman must be taken before a Judge of the Supreme Court, or other person or persons legally authorized to take acknowledgments of married women, or before the District land Registrar.

13. Whenever the concurrence of any person interested is required to give validity to any transaction, such concurrence may be signified by the words "I consent hereto," written on the instrument and signed by such person. The signature must be witnessed and the execution acknowledged or proved in manner hereinbefore described.

14. The counterpart of every instrument registered, bearing a certificate under the hand and seal of the District land Registrar that the particulars thereof have been entered in the register-book, will be returned to the party who has acquired estate or interest thereby.

page 18

15. Entry in the register-book is th essential which gives validity to transactions; and the certificate and seal of the District Land Registrar render the instrument evidence to prove title in any Court of justice.