678 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G-. 
years. At the end of 1892, about four-fifths of the land alienated 
from the Crown in Victoria was under the provisions of the Act, and 
the remaining fifth would probably bear a higher proportion to the 
whole in value than in area. In thus introducing an immense excep- 
tion to the general law, instead of amending that law as a whole, I 
venture to think a great error w r as made. That the course adopted 
was not at all necessary it will not be difficult to show, but to do so it 
will be necessary to consider in detail the leading principles of the 
Torrens system. * The first may be stated thus : That interests in land 
are not affected except by registered instruments. There seems no 
possible reason why this principle should not have been applied to 
all land. It miglit’have been enacted quite generally that no instru- 
ment affecting land, except a lease for a term not exceeding three 
years from the making of it, or the surrender or assignment of a 
term not exceeding three years’ duration from the date of the assign- 
ment or surrender, should take effect except from its registration. 
Again, under the Torrens system, the duties of the registrar are 
not merely ministerial. He has to exercise a discretion as to whether 
an instrument lodged with him is a proper instrument to he registered. 
In this way it is rendered impossible, or, at all events, very difficult, to 
put on the register any documents which would cloud the title. There 
is no reason why this provision should not be made perfectly general. 
Again, under the Torrens system, an instrument can only be 
registered as affecting particular land. If the registrar is made an 
officer empowered to" exercise a discretion, this principle might he 
applied to all instruments affecting land whatever. 
So, again, a person dealing with a registered proprietor is not 
affected by notice or knowledge of any unregistered interest. Why 
should not this principle be made quite general P 
Again, under the Torrens system, trusts cauuot be registered. 
This principle, either in the form in which it appears to he enacted or 
in the form in which it is carried out, might he made a general propo- 
sition applicable to all land without exception— that is, in the latter 
case, if the legistrar is made an officer empowered to exercise a dis- 
cretion as to whether the instruments he registers can he properly 
registered in accordance with law. 
Again, under the Torrens system, a purchaser is entitled to assume 
the validity of any registered dealing with an actually existing person, 
and a person deprived of land by a mistake in the ofiice, or otherwise 
by the operation of the Act, is commonly entitled to recover compen- 
sation out of a fund made up of fees levied upon registration and their 
accumulation. This principle might be extended generally. 
Another change introduced by the Torrens system was in the 
simplification of the language of instruments. _ _ 
It may be interesting to notice the causes, mainly historical, which 
made a conveyance of land so lengthy and cumbrous. 
1. Our ancestors appear to have thought that when a man was 
given an estate in land for his life, he had been given all that was 
possible to give him, and all that could be done further was to give 
the land to" his heirs after him. In process of time, the ancestor 
acquired as against his heirs the power of alieuatiou, first inter 
and afterwards by will, so that an estate limited to a man and his 
heirs became what is now known as an estate in fee-simple. Still, the 
