90 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [in. 



III. 



MODERN REGISTRATION ACTS. 



25 & 26 Viet. c. 53. 



As REGARDS the two modern attempts to establish 

 a system of registration, it appears to have been the 

 principal object of the first, the 25 & 26 Viet. c. 53 

 (1862), that the owner of land should be enabled to 

 obtain an absolutely indefeasible title to his property. 

 Now, desirable as is this object, it is one which cannot 

 be attained without a minute investigation into the 

 actual title. In order not to commit injustice by 

 destroying the right of an absent and, it may be, an 

 unknown person, it is absolutely necessary to ascer- 

 tain that the applicant, who requires the grant of 

 an indefeasible title, is the true and sole owner ; and 

 this cannot be effected without a rigid examination 

 of documents, and public advertisements limiting a 

 time for adverse claimants to come in precautions 

 which necessarily occasion considerable delay and 

 expense. Owners, therefore, who feel satisfied with 



