BRIEF NOTES ON THJi EFFECTS OF (GEOMETRICAL 

 SURVEY AND LEG.VL REGISTRATION OF LAND 

 IN RELATION TO THE SECURITY OF RIGHTS 

 OVER IMMOVABLE PROPERTY AND ITS IDENTI- 

 FICATION. 



By Pedro Luis de Bellegakde da Silva. 



(Translation.) 



The matter briefly dealt with in this ])aper contains no 

 scientitic or administrative novelty. 



\\'ith reference to private immovable property, which is 

 constituted l)y the concessions of State land in Mozambitiue to 

 nationals and foreigners. I shall mention herein the fundamental 

 principles governing the coiistitution and system of land transac- 

 tions having for a basis the principles of (ieometrical .Purvey 

 and Registration of Land, but this does not imply any doctrines 

 unknown to those who are conversant with the subject. 



For tliis reason, the reading of this brief paper before the 

 Congress of the South African Association for the Advancement 

 of Science may only l)e justified by its com])arative " news 

 value." as within the vast Portuguese administrative jurisdiction 

 in luiroi'c and tlie colonies, only in the Province of Mozaml)i(|ue. 

 and inst recently in Angola, have mathematical and le<?"al Survey 

 and Registration Ijeen established by law. exem])lihc(l as to its 

 final results in Mozambique.' 



Right through the centuries and generations the history of 

 landed property is on a par with the history of humanity with 

 which it is intimately connected, and possesses its own evolution. 



With a merely historical interest, the medi?eval epoch shows 

 us 'the Renaissance and some approaches to old practices of 

 agrarian collectivism in the usufruct of land. The feudal system, 

 says Michelet, " was something like a religion of the lands."" but 

 in those times the feudal lord represented the community of free 



' Tlie 1907 organization of the administrative services of the Pro- 

 vince of Mozambique, by granting a certain decentralization of powers 

 and initiative to the Governor-General permitted, with the probahihty of 

 attaining practical results in the Admifiistration, of his studying with the 

 assistance of the Government Council the principal problems of the internal 

 government of the Colony. 



It was in terms of these powers that Governor Freire de .\ndrade 

 proposed the remodelling of the Land Concessions Law and established 

 in this reform the principles of Geometrical Survey and Registration as 

 its essential basis. 



It would be impossible to mention, within the limits of these remarks, 

 not even generally and much less in detail, the chapters of administration 

 dealt with as a result of the deep study and enquiry made by that 

 Governor-General into the Administration of Mozambique : the political 

 situation and the inventory of the Provincial Wealth and productive 

 powers ; the study of the native question in its close connection witli he 

 most varied aspects of Home trade, administration, and progress of the 

 Province and of the natives themselves; the ir^ancial equilibrium, and. 



