insecurity of title, which leaves people in doubt as to whether land, which they call their own, and which has usually been acquired at great cost, legally belongs to them. This result can, as will be subsequently indicated (page 22), be attained without doing injustice to any one. Moreover, by effluxion of time, many doubtful titles will soon be in a condition to be declared indefeasible, a result which a recent statute ("The Real Property Limitation Act, 1874") will hasten.
In bringing forward a measure which has been grappled with in vain by three Lord Chancellors, I am aware that I render myself obnoxious to the charge of presumption. My defence is that the question as here treated is not one of law, but rather of official mechanism, by means of which the principles advocated by those high authorities may be rendered operative to the almost incalculable benefit of all who are now, or hope to become, interested in land; and for that work ray official employment in connection with the transfer of property in shipping, and subsequently in registration of assurances, afforded an experience of a special character which neither the study nor the practice of the law are calculated to impart. And, again, I would plead that the complete success which has attended the application of that mechanism in the nine colonies in which it is in operation, warrants the belief that the like result will follow its adoption in this country.
