LAND TITLES. 171 



CHAPTER XIX. 



LAND TITLES. 



THE difficulties which have in other colonies beset the path 

 of the early settler by reason of the insecurity of his land 

 title are not met with in Fiji, and those who may think of 

 acting practically on my hints for capitalists will assuredly 

 read with interest the following account of how land is held 

 by P]uropean colonists in Fiji. 



The white settlers who have proved the bona fides of their 

 claims receive a grant from the Crown, which thenceforward 

 becomes the basis of the title. This is issued in duplicate 

 under the seal of the colony, one copy being retained for 

 registration, and the other delivered to the grantee. A plan 

 of the land by the Crown Surveyor of the Colony is delineated 

 on the grant. All the mortgages and encumbrances on the land 

 are also entered thereon by the Registrar of Titles, so that the 

 grant not only shows who is the grantee, but also the condi- 

 tion of the land as regards indebtedness. When a grantee 

 sells he must use the form of transfer provided by the Real 

 Property Ordinance, 1876, printed copies of which are pub- 

 licly sold, and which may easily be filled up by any intelligent 

 person. If a solicitor be employed his remuneration is regu- 

 lated according to a moderate scale of charges contained in a 

 schedule to the Ordinance, and the fee thus allowed covers all 

 professional work in connection with the transfer. The 

 transfer is, in its turn, registered by handing in a duplicate 

 for the purpose, and the Registrar of Titles then issues a 

 Certificate of Title, which is practically a renewed Crown grant 

 to the purchaser, with all the mortgages and encumbrances 

 marked thereon, as in the case of the original Crown grant. 



