Wills, when

to take effect

from date of registration.

Memorial of

tion, if registered within such of the following periods as shall be applicable to such Instrument, that is to say :

1. In the case of an Instrument executed at the place where it is registered, the period of Ten days from its date;

2. In the case of an Instrument executed elsewhere in the Colony, the period of Sixty days from its date;

3. In the case of an Instrument executed out of the Colony, the period of One year from its date.

6. Every Will of a Testator dying after the passing of this Ordinance, shall, so far as regards any Land to be affected thereby, take effect as against other Instruments affecting the same Land from the date of its registration, provided that every such Will shall take effect from the death of the Testator if registered within such of the following periods as shall be applicable to such Will, that is to say :

1. In the case of the Will of any person dying in the Colony, the period of Two months next after the death of the Testator;

2. In the case of the Will of any person dying elsewhere than in the Colony, the period of Eighteen months next after the death of the Testator.

7. Every private Ordinance and Inquisition enacted, or held Private Ordi- after the passing of this Ordinance, shall be void, so far as regards quisition to be any Land to be affected thereby, unless a Memorial thereof shall be registered within Ten days from the enactment or date thereof.

nance and In

registered.

Memorial of

Private Ordiexpress title,

nance to

date and number:

Of an Inquisi

tion to express name of defendant and date. Memorials to be kept by Registrars.

8. The Memorial of a private Ordinance shall express the title, date and number thereof, and the Memorial of an Inquisition shall express the name of the defendant, and the date of the Inquisition. (8 of 1883, ss. 8 & 10.)

as may

9. Every such Memorial shall be kept by the Registrar in his office, in such order and manner as he shall think fit, so that the same may be most readily seen and inspected, and shall be as near be in the words or to the effect of such one of the Forms C. in the said first Schedule as shall be applicable; and every Memorial shall be verified by the oath of some competent person that the same contains a true statement of the several particulars therein set forth, which oath shall be made and taken before the Registrar who is hereby authorised and empowered to administer the same. The Registrar shall give a receipt in the Form D. in the same Schedule for each Memorial, specifying the year, month, day and hour at which he receives the same, and shall place upon the back of the Memorial a certificate under his hand, specifying the said year, month, day and hour, and the name and abode of the person verifying the Memorial. (8 of 1883, s. 11.)

be trans

or Plan.

10. Within one calendar month from the date of every judgment Memorial of whereby Land or the title thereto is or shall be affected, the judgment to Registrar of the Court by which such judgment shall have been mitted to pronounced, shall transmit to the Registrar of the District in which Registrar without Map such Land is situate, a Memorial thereof expressing the title of the action in which such judgment was pronounced, the date thereof, and a description of the Land affected by such judgment. Such Memorial shall be as near as may be in the words or to the effect of the Form E. in the Schedule hereunto annexed; and no Map or Plan shall accompany or be attached thereto, unless the same shall have been put in evidence before the Court by which such judgment was pronounced, and unless such Map or Plan shall be expressly referred to in the judgment. (12 of 1883, ss. 2 & 4.)

11. On receipt of the Memorial of any judgment the Registrar Registrar to shall file the same.

Provided that

(1) No judgment shall be void by reason of any error or
omission of the Registrar;

(2) Nothing in this Ordinance contained shall be construed so
as to render invalid any judgment registered under
any Ordinance in force at the time of such registration.
(12 of 1883, ss. 3, 5 & 6.)

file Memorial of judgment.

12. Every Instrument executed before the passing of this Ordin- Instruments ance other than a Will, and every Will of a Testator who shall or Wills executed prior have died before the passing of this Ordinance, shall, as regards to Ordinance, any Land to be affected thereby, take effect as against other Instru- when to take ments affecting the same Land from the date of its registration effect. under this Ordinance; provided that every such Instrument or Will which shall have been registered before the passing of this Ordinance in the Supreme Court of the Colony, or in the Register of Deeds kept at the Colonial Secretariat, or in the Register of Grants kept at the Colonial Surveyor's Office, or shall be registered under this Ordinance within Two years from the passing of this Ordinance, shall take effect from the date thereof, or in the case of a Will, from the death of the Testator. Any Instrument executed before the passing of this Ordinance other than a Will, and the Will of any Testator who has died before the passing of this Ordinance may be registered without proof or acknowledgment, and shall with the certificates to be placed thereon as herein before provided, be copied and registered in Books to be kept specially for that purpose in each of the said Registry Offices.

ment:

13. No Instrument executed after the passing of this Ordinance, Mode of and no Will of a Testator dying after the passing of this Ordinance acknowledg shall be registered unless it has been acknowledged by the Vendor, Donor, Mortgagor, Lessor or other person conveying, transferring, mortgaging, charging or demising the Land, or by some person

In the Colony;

In Great Britain and the Colonies;

In Foreign
Countries;

Certificate of
Registry.

Copy of an
Instrument

may be regis-
tered when
original is

authorized by him to acknowledge the same, or proved upon oath by one or more of the subscribing witnesses to have been duly executed, which oath the Registrar at any of the said Offices is hereby empowered to administer or unless the probate of such Will or Letters of Administration with such Will annexed under the Seal of some Court in some part of Her Majesty's dominions, having jurisdiction to grant the same, shall be produced to the Registrar. The proof or acknowledgment required by this section shall be made as follows:

1. If such Instrument or Will be executed in the Colony before the Registrar, at the Office where it is presented for registration, or before a District Commissioner or Justice of the Peace;

2. If such Instrument or Will be executed in any other part of Her Majesty's dominions before any Judge, of any Court of Law, or the Mayor, or Chief Magistrate of any City, or any Police Magistrate, or the person administering the Government of any Colony;

3. If such Instrument or Will be executed in any foreign country before any British Consul or other accredited British Representative resident in such country;

4. An Instrument or Will not proved or acknowledged before the Registrar, shall not be registered unless it shall have upon it a certificate as near as may be in the Form F. in the said first Schedule purporting to be under the hand and Official Seal or private Seal (if there should be no Official Seal), or the hand alone if the person shall have no Official or private Seal of some one of the persons herein before authorized to receive such proof or acknowledgment to the effect that such Instrument has been proved or acknowledged as the case may be.

14. If any Instrument be executed in any part of the world where by law the original is kept in any office in such part of the world, in such case a copy of the original and the certificate of acknowledgment or proof thereof as the case may be, certified to preserved in a be correct by the Public Officer in whose custody the original is foreign kept, shall be registered by the Registrar at any of the said offices country. in the same manner as an original Instrument, provided the original Instrument shall have been acknowledged or proved in the manner herein provided.

Instruments

other than

Wills to have a plan and

description of land thereon.

Penalty for false state

ment.

15. No Instrument other than a Will, and no Memorial of an Ordinance, or Inquisition shall be registered, unless it shall have on the margin or back a plan of the Land affected by such Instrument, Ordinance, or Inquisition, and either in the body of the Instrument, or Memorial, or in the margin or back thereof a description of such Land.

16. Any person who shall wilfully make or cause to be made for the purpose of being inserted in any Register under this Ordinance

any false statement touching any of the particulars herein required to be known and registered, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to pay a fine not exceeding Fifty pounds, or to be imprisoned with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding one year.

17. No erasure shall be made in any Register Book, or Register No erasure in or certified copy or extract thereof; but if any error shall occur, any Register. then a line of red ink shall be drawn through any word improperly inserted so as to leave the original word legible, and any word which may have been omitted shall either be interlined or written in the margin with red ink, (and always when practicable by the same hand as the rest of the same writing) and the Registrar shall subscribe his name in the margin opposite to each correction.

18. Any person who shall wilfully destroy or injure, or cause to Penalty for be destroyed or injured, any Register Book, Register, or Regis- destroying or falsifying tered Memorial, or any part thereof, or shall counterfeit or cause Register to be counterfeited any part of any such Book, Register, or Memorial, Books. or any certified copy thereof, or extract therefrom, or shall wilfully insert or cause to be inserted in any such Book, Register, Memorial, Certified copy or extract any false entry, or shall certify any writing to be a copy or extract of any such Book, Register, or Memorial, knowing the same to be false in any part thereof, or shall forge and counterfeit the seal of any Registry Office shall be guilty of Felony, and shall be liable to be kept in penal servitude for any term not exceeding Seven years, or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding Two years with or without hard labour.

19. All Register Books, Registers, and Registered Memorials Registers at the Registry Offices shall be deemed to be in legal custody, and deemed in shall be receivable in evidence in all Courts of Justice in the and shall be legal custody Colony, and every Registrar shall produce or cause to be produced receivable in any Register Book, Register, or Memorial in his office, or Subpoena evidence. or Order of any Court or Tribunal without payment for so doing unless the Court or Tribunal shall direct otherwise. s. 20.)

(8 of 1883,

be evidence.

20. The Registrars shall allow searches to be made at all reason- Copies or able times in any Register Book, Register or File of Memorials in extracts of their custody, and upon request and payment of the proper fees Registers to shall give copies or extracts of any entry in any such Book or Register, or of any such Memorial, and shall certify as correct all such copies or extracts. Every copy or extract, or certificate of registry purporting to be signed by a Registrar, shall be received in evidence without any further or other proof thereof, unless it shall be proved that the same is a forgery, in all civil cases instead of the production of the original register or record, subject nevertheless to the provisions herein-after contained. (8 of 1883, s. 21.)

Certified

be used upon notice given.

21. In case any party shall intend to use in evidence on the extracts may trial or hearing of any civil action, suit, or matter in any of the Courts of Justice, any copy or extract certified as herein-before mentioned of any entry in any such Register Book or Register, or of any such Memorial, he shall give notice in writing to the opposite party, his Attorney or Agent, of his intention to use such certified copy or extract in evidence at such trial or hearing, and at the same time shall deliver to him, his Attorney or Agent, a copy of the copy or extract and of the certificate thereon, and on proof by affidavit of the service or on admission of the receipt. of such notice and copy, such certified copy or extract shall be received in evidence at such trial or hearing if the Chief Justice, Judge or Court shall be of opinion that such service has been made in sufficient time before such trial or hearing to have enabled the opposite party to inspect the original Register Book, Register, or Memorial, from which such certified copy or extract has been taken. (8 of 1883, s. 22.)

Registers of Deeds to be delivered to Registrars appointed under this Ordinance.

Fees receivable by Registrars.

22. The Registers of Deeds kept in the Registry of the Supreme Court, the Registers kept at the Colonial Secretariat for the registration of the Conveyances of Land, Mortgages and other Instruments, and the Registers kept at the Office of the Colonial Surveyor for the registration of Crown Grants shall, as soon as conveniently may be, after the passing of this Ordinance, be delivered over by the Registrar of the Supreme Court, the Colonial Secretary, or in his absence, the Assistant Colonial Secretary, and the Colonial Surveyor respectively, or by the Officers acting for the time being in such respective capacities to the first Registrars' appointed under this Ordinance at the nearest Registry Offices to the respective places in which such Registers have heretofore respectively been kept, and shall remain and continue in the custody of the Registrars at such Offices, and every such Register, or a certified copy or extract thereof, shall be receivable in evidence in the same manner as if such Registers had been made and kept in pursuance of this Ordinance. (8 of 1883, s. 23.)

23. The Fees receivable by the Registrars shall be taken and regulated according to the second Schedule hereunto annexed, and a copy of the same Schedule shall be placed in a conspicuous part of each Registry Office. Every Registrar shall render a true account of the Fees received by him to the Colonial Treasurer or to such Officer as may be acting for and on his behalf on the last day of each month, or at such times as the Governor shall direct; and at the same time pay the amount thereof to the Colonial Treasurer or to such Officer as may be acting as aforesaid at the Treasury, to be carried to the credit of the Colony; and no Registrar shall do any act, or furnish any certificate copy or extract, or allow any search until he shall have received the fee or fees payable in respect thereof. The Governor may from time to time make any alteration in the said Schedule. (8 of 1883, s. 24.)