4l6 LAND KF.CISTRATION IN MOZAMBIQUE. 



The organization of a survey in any country, before its mere 

 maintenance, is a very expensive matter. The technical exigen- 

 cies of the problem are the necessity for recruiting an able and 

 trained staff of experts in this special work, and owing to the 

 practical absence of geometrical subsidies in the country this 

 becomes complex and sometimes very difficult. 



In my recent visit to the Survey Department of the Trans- 

 vaal, I found that the system employed in geometrical work was 

 in ])erfect analogy and parallel to the methods adopted in 

 .Mozambique. But the services in the Head Department at Pre- 

 toria are in charge of a permanent stall' of thirty-tive ofncials, 

 including one Surveyor-* ieneral, one under-Surveyor-( ieneral, 

 assistants, draughtsmen, calculators, and clerks. 



Su])ordinate to this Head Office there were ninety geometri- 

 cians of the London or Cape of ( lood Hope Universities doing 

 cam]) work. These officials occup\' a similar ])osition to that of 

 our sworn surveyors. 



Hie initial exp'ense involved in the Survey operations besides 

 its mere upkeep, has preoccupied nearly all the nations of the 

 Avorld, but the ([uestion of monetary sacrifice has not prejudiced 

 tlie carrying out of the undertakiu'^'-. 



It is true that for merely fiscal jnu-poses in the taxation of 

 immovable property, many Surveys have been organised, but 

 the high standpoint of the security of the rights over property in 

 the possession of the holder, and its uncjuestionable position and 

 area, far surj^asses the interests of the Public Treasury ; besides, 

 it is (|uite evident that a ])erfect Survey and legal Registration, 

 at once the basis of the fiscal system, is l)etter suited to assure 

 the taxation assessment. 



The effects of the Land Registration law of iS8() were so 

 well understood in Italy that many territorial circumscriptions 

 advanced the funds re(|uired to permit of the work being carried 

 out without delay in those same circumscriptions. 



In newlv settled countries where the interests of siieculation 

 on the transfer of lauds granted l)y the .State delay as a rule the 

 material evidence of the ])ossession of holder of the land ^vhich 

 would be afforded by its cultivation, the settlement of rights to 

 ]:)roperty and the identification of the land, even when unoccupied, 

 is a Doint of the highest im]>ortance and which can only be solved 

 by the (xeometrical Cadastre. 



[ have already stated that the ever-increasing difficulties 

 which i)revented the definition of the status of property in the 

 British colonies led Sir Roljert Torrens (Surveyor-General) to 

 conceive the system known by his own name and which was 

 first introduced in Southern Australia. It was also due to the 

 efforts of Mr. Maxwell, director of the Property Services at Sing- 

 apore, that the same system w^as adopted in British settlements, 

 and in Argelia, Mr. Firmau, in order to free landed ])roperty 

 from the great obstacles that ojiposed its mobilization, had a 

 system based on the Torrens' method instituted. 



