Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1897-07-29
GnEAr BRITAIN INVESTIGATING
ruE CONTINENTAL METHODS.
How Germany and Austria Facilitate
Realty sales ana Loans a.a
charge Low Fees.

much trouble and red tape methods
as in England, while the expense
incurred there will compare favor
ably with Hawaii itself. But even
conservative Old England is be
coming tired Of the present cum
bersome system and is looking
around for something better aud
cheaper. The Torrens system,
now so generally adopted in the
Australian Colonies and the
United States, has been uniformly
successful wherever adopted, but
there is nothing new about it.
While the system is named after
q New Zealand legislator, who in
troduced the bill in his Parlia
ment which resulted in the sys
tenn becoming law in that colony
and drew general attention to its
features from countries and states
like Hawaii almost grooming
under the expense of the anti
quated methods now in vogue, it
really dates from the medieval
ages and has been in daily use for
hundred of years on the Cont
nent of Europe.
1t Is pleasant to read in late
copy of the London Standard that
g. Fortescue-Brickdale, the As
sistant Registrar of the Land
Office, WAS, on the suggestion of
the Land Registrar in May last,
instructed by the Government to
investigate the practical working
OF the system of land registration
carried on In Germany and Aus.
tria Hungary. The British EN-.
bassies at Berlin and Vienna pro
cured the fullest official and gen
eral facilities for the inquiry,
which included visits to Berlin
and Vienna, and to several impor-
tant towns in various parts, as
well as to some of the smaller
provincial centers and country
districts.
1t appears from the report just
published that systems of regis
tration of title practically the
same as the colonial "Torrens"
system ard the system partially
established in England under
Lord Westbury's and Lord
Cairns acts of 1862 and 1875, are
now in almost universal operation
over the whole of the German and
Austro Hungarian empires. These
systems are everywhere exceeding
ly popular. Land owners, busi-
ness men particularly bankers
aud others employing capital in
loans on real security, aud even
lawyers appear unanimous as to
it's advantages. The system is
found to be cheap, easy, rapid,
simple and safe. This is not due
to any special simplicity in the
titles, rights or transactions them
selves, the majority of which are
quite as complicated as average
dealings in England.
Several examples are given OF
the registration of what we should
call noblemen's and country gen
tlemen's estates-one, comprising
10000 English acres of town,
village, arabic, pasture, wood and
waste, filling two folio volumes of
500 pages apiece, together with
500 sheets of the cadastral map.
These properties are subject to
entails and settlements similar to
those prevalent in England, and
often to charitable and religious
loles and charges of great anti
Iuity, and likewise to heavy mort
cages. On the other hand small
properties are far more common
than with us and give rise to such
numerous transactions that in
Austria over 70 per cent of the
sales are far under ESQ. Very
low scales OF ices Sumce 10 pay all
official expenses.
In Prussia, for instance, the
Tees for registering sales begin at
ID for a value of 81, at G20 the
Tee is 2s I'd, at Gl00 it is rs 3D., at
fl000 it is 81 los, at $4,000, "a
Is, and 30 on. Where dispatch is
not demanded, ten and fifteen
lays is the usual time occupied
over sales and mortgages. In
Prussia, the security of a register
ID purchaser is absolute imme-
lately on registration, and in
Austria practically so, though
interval is given for pos