UNCERTAINTY OF TITLE 99 



in other countries as a " Land Mortgage Bank ", the special 

 object of which is to make loans to land-owners for executing 

 permanent improvements beneficial to agriculture. Such 

 a bank, if established on a large scale, would advance 

 money at about 7 or 8 per cent interest, being 1 per cent 

 higher than it paid on fixed deposits. Existing mortgages at 

 high rates of interest could be paid off, and additional money 

 advanced, whereby the improvement of the estate could be 

 begun. The plans for such improvements would be approv- 

 ed by an agricultural engineer as adviser to the bank, and 

 this would be of advantage to land-owners in preventing the 

 possible waste of capital through their undertaking works 

 which had been hastily considered or improperly designed. 

 In Germany and other European countries such " nobles' 

 banks" or " landed proprietors' mortgage banks" have been 

 in existence for nearly a century. In England they do not 

 seem to have been so necessary, for big insurance companies 

 and other financial institutions have been ready to lend 

 money to landed proprietors for long periods on satisfactory 

 terms. 



A great difficulty in the way of successfully promoting 

 land mortgage banks in India, and in fact a difficulty which 

 hampers the investment of capital in the land in all 

 directions, is uncertainty of title. The law of succession, 

 both Hindu and Mahommedan, leaves many openings for 

 unforseeable claims to a share in the property to arise at 

 any future time. If any such claim be put forward it may 

 either invalidate the sale or mortgage of the land, or the 

 claimant may force the purchaser or mortgagee to pay him 

 a share of the property in capital or income. Many of 

 the joint-stock banks which in former years frequently 

 advanced money on mortgage of land have suffered heavy 

 losses in costly litigation to defend their titles ; and they 

 have now very properly almost entirely discontinued 



