THE SURVEY QUESTION IN COCHIN-CHINA. 



{Translated from the " Bulletin de la Societe des Etudes 

 Indo-Chinoises de Saigon " for the first half-year of 1886.) 



HE Colonial Council has lately had under considera- 

 tion the question of undertaking a cadastral survey 

 'B^jp^ of Cochin-China. 



J$^ In the course of the debate on the subject (at the 



? meeting of the 2 1st of December, 1885), the Chairman 

 of the Committee for affaires diver ses } himself opposed to the 

 measure, quoted in support of his opinion a memorandum which 

 I had drawn up on this question. But though unfavourable to 

 the proposed survey, this memorandum contained, on a matter 

 of much more real importance, certain proposals to which 

 no allusion was made in the Colonial Council, and in respect 

 of which I think it advisable to lay certain information before 

 the Committee. I mean the introduction of the Torrens sys- 

 tem in the Colony. 



No subject is more completely within the scope of the 

 researches to which our Society devotes itself, and there must 

 evidently be every advantage in seeing this question made the 

 subject of such discussions as may eventually contribute to 

 the determination of the steps to be taken in the future. But 

 before laying before the Council the system which I advocate, 

 it is necessary to clear the ground of the proposals having 

 reference to the carrying out of a cadastal survey to which I 

 alluded just now. 



These projects originated with Messrs. A and G , 



with the Administrator of Soctrang, and with the Council of 

 the arrondissement of Bentre, who in 1884 P u t forward a 

 resolution on this subject, which was taken up in the Colonial 

 Council by the Hon'ble M. C . 



