Land Titles. 
By Hon. William Russell. 
HE conveyancing solicitor who has been ac- 
customed to dive into mysterious boxes 
m labelled "Title Deeds", and has waded through 
acres of closely written vellum recording the most 
minute details of every transaction connected with a 
property from its earliest history, all being carefully 
scanned and considered before a single rood of the 
property can be alienated, would be surprised to find in 
this colony no mysterious boxes, and that the Registrar's 
office fulfils all the duties of record connected alike with 
the largest or the smallest property, and that a single 
deed, costing $16, or £3. 6s. 8d., with the necessary notice 
in the local press, enables the proprietors to transfer, or 
burden by deed of mortgage, the whole or part of their 
land. While this is now the established custom of the 
colony, it was evidently not the intention of the early 
Dutch law-makers that the records of the Registrar's office 
should alone be sufficient proof to warrant the transfer of 
property. It was clearly their intention, as set forth in 
clause 6 of the States General's orders of 1792, that 
a correct chart of all concessions, lands and possessions 
in the colony should be executed, with the necessary 
records, and it was for this purpose that acre money was 
first instituted. 
Later on, coming down to the English possession, we 
find in Ordinance 9 of 1873 the appointment of a Crown 
Surveyor and Assistant Surveyors, with their duties de- 
