252 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



rendering admirable service, considerably cheapening and greatly 

 simplifying charges, transfer, transactions on death, and conveyanc- 

 ing and otherwise, whilst absolutely securing possession. Under 

 one aspect the success of compulsory registration of title is even 

 more marked in its application to Ireland, where registration of 

 title to all land purchased with the help of State money is made 

 compulsory. It is these transactions which make up the bulk of 

 the business done — for large landowners in the sister island are as 

 slow to see, and act up to their own advantage in this matter 

 as their colleagues over here — thanks to a common vis inertice. That 

 business of the Irish Land Registry amounted up to June, 1919, 

 to close upon 300,000 separate registrations of titles, the annual 

 dealings exceeding 22,000. The registers are kept in so clear a way 

 that everything connected with the property may be seen at a 

 glance, or, indeed, evidence of title is readily procurable by the 

 issue of a sealed copy of the register, as also of the relative map. 

 The saving in money on such transactions is considerable, and the 

 saving in trouble and the gain in convenience should weigh heavily 

 in the balance. The title once entered in the register is absolute 

 and secures the owner entitled against all comers. Not that there 

 is much doubt about the quality of the titles. They have, in the 

 course of centuries, been so often inquired into, so minutely investi- 

 gated and so closely tested, that on the point of right there can be 

 scarcely any question. To guard against any possible errors by 

 the Department there is an insurance fund, which has proved more 

 than sufficient. 



How, in the face of all the substantial benefits which registration 

 confers, it should have been so little resorted to in this country up 

 to the present, and even now, after nearly four centuries of anxious 

 inquiry left purely optional — while our colonies have been quick to 

 make the practice their own, once they came to know about it — it is 

 difficult to understand. Mr. Lloyd George seemed very near 

 imposing Registration of Title on the country when he introduced 

 Registration of Land Values. The one seems a necessary comple- 

 ment to the other, and would certainly well fit into it. In its Land 

 Transfer Act, passed in 1897, Parliament suggested registration, but, 

 as observed, it left such purely optional, and by a curious perver- 

 sion of judgment entrusted the power of making it compulsory in 

 any particular county, of all bodies, to the county councils ! What 

 on earth Registration of Titles should have to do with county 

 administration one fails to see. Plainly this is a matter of general 

 interest, a matter for Parliament or at the very least, if there should 



