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be certain that his land would not at some 
future date be taken from him and given away 
elsewhere.” 
“ In the year 1299 (1881), however, the Sultan 
Mulut Merah, introduced a system of registra- 
tion of all changes of tenure, by which means 
land purchased or inherited was definitely 
recognised as the property of the registering 
party, and later on, in the year 1314 (1896), 
the Sultan Mansur inaugurated a Land Office, 
for the keeping of such registers, and for the 
issue of proper title deeds. A person who 
had acquired land by application to the local 
authorities was thus enabled to secure his title 
beyond the possibility of dispute by registering 
at the Land Office, and there receiving a title 
deed, or “ Grant,” as it was called, the name 
whence Sultan Mansur got his idea. Not con- 
tent with the issue of deeds to voluntary 
applicants, the Sultan, in 1317 (1899), sent out 
a commission to enquire into the tenure of land 
already alienated by the State, with a view to 
a compulsory issue of deeds to all landholders.” 
The above was written by Mr. W. A. Graham, 
His Siamese Majesty’s Resident and Adviser in 
Kelantan, in 1904. Later, he wrote that this com- 
mission had issued thirty thousand title deeds. A 
few details may be added. 
Sultan Mulat Merah’s regulations provided for 
the measurement of all land which was to be trans- 
ferred or mortgaged, and for the endorsement of a 
plan on the deed, which was to be authenticated by 
two officers of the local mosque, with whom lay the 
duty of measurement, the local Headman, and the 
owners of the adjoining land. These deeds, known 
