Sanitaiy Improvements in the Rural Districts 



343 



may also have it examined by the analyst, 

 who is to give him a certificate of the result, 

 on payment of a small fee, and the analysts 

 are to make reports quarterly to the au- 

 thorities by whom they are appointed. 



The other measure is more extensive in its 

 scope, and bears the title of the Public 

 Health Act. Its object, as its title indicates, 

 is the better to preserve the public health, 

 and especial mention may be made of better 

 sanitary arrangements as to drainage and 

 water supply. It will have to appoint and 

 pay medical officers, inspectors, clerks and 

 treasurers, and undertake the enforcement of 

 various sanitary Acts, such as those relating 

 to sewage, common lodging-houses, and the 

 prevention of diseases. Provision is specially 

 made for new drainage works, and for the 

 formation of special drainage districts, with 

 proper managing authorities and taxing 

 powers. We hope Mr Medical Ofticer and 

 Mr Sanitary Inspector will take a turn round 

 some of our truly " rural " spots and places. 

 They can scarcely cross the village green 

 without finding the duck-pond to be a fester- 

 ing, slimy, stinking pool, connected with a 

 trickling stream of filth, round which the 

 children daily play. They might also dis- 



cover fetid, fever-breeding cesspools under 

 the very noses of the cottagers ; while, were 

 they to explore the interior of the picturesque 

 old thatched dwellings, not excluding the 

 bedrooms (often plural only by courtesy) 

 they might find much that would not bear 

 inspection — sanitary or moral. The Boards 

 of Guardians are the Sanitary Authorities in 

 such delightful localities. AVhere it is no 

 one's duty to enlighten the inhabitants on 

 these points, a blissful state of ignorance pre- 

 vails as to the mens sana in corpote sa?io. 

 The Act gives power to appoint ex-officio 

 guardians, and parochial committees of per- 

 sons who are not guardians of the poor ; but 

 we are afraid the spirit of Gray's maxim will 

 generally prevail ; where there is no great 

 desire for getting rid of nuisances, it will be 

 thought with him that — 



" Where ignorance is bliss 

 'Tis folly to be wise," 



and the parochial committees will never be 

 appointed. Boards of Guardians have quite 

 enough on their hands in the administration 

 of the Poor Law, without adding to it that of 

 the public health ; but the machinery is pro- 

 vided for sanitary regulations, and we rejoice 

 in this as a step in the right direction. 



THE TRANSFER OF LAND. 



By Sir Robert Torrens, M.P.* 



'T'HE question of applying to estates and in- 

 -L terests in land the principles of conveyanc- 

 ing by registration of title has frequently been 

 discussed by this Association. I have under- 

 taken to bring it again under review, with the 

 additional light thrown upon the subject through 

 the labours of the Royal Commission on the 

 Land Transfer Act of 1862 (Lord Westbury's), 

 and more recently by the Parliamentary returns 

 exhibiting the working of the corresponding act 

 in Ireland (Record of Titles Act, Ireland, 28 

 and 29 Vict.), and by the blue book containing 

 the reports of governors of the Australian 



Read before the Social Science Association. 



colonies, testifying the complete success of the 

 same principle there, applied under a different 

 method. As the question may be new to some 

 of my hearers, I will commence by endeavour- 

 ing, in as few words as possible, to explain the 

 radical distinction between " conveyancing by 

 deed " and " conveyancing by registration of 

 title." Title by deed, we are informed, by pro- 

 bably as high an authority upon the subject as 

 any in England (Mr Freshfield) can never be 

 demonstrated as an ascertained fact ; it can 

 only be presented as an inference more or less 

 probable, deducible from the documentary and 

 other evidence accessible at the time being. 

 This condition involves, in the first place, the 



