The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1922-06-16
WILL REGISTER $4,000
TYRRELL COUNTY ACRES
incidentally This Newspaper Carries What Is
Probably the Largest Legal Notice Ever Pub
Eshed in North Carolina Newspaper


weeks issue of THE INDE-
PENDENT in a proceeding in
stituted by the Richmond c.
dar Works to register certain
lands in Tyrell and Hyde coun-
ties, North Carolina, under the
North Carolina Land Registra-
ton Act of 1917.
The notice published in this paper
is notice of summons, required by
law, on upwards of five hundred land
owners in Tyrrell and Hyde Counties
whose lands adjoin or abut the pro-
perty for which registration is sought.
The notice published in this paper
names all parties upon whom sum-
mons is to be served and gives a de-
Scription of ten parcels of land con-
Sisting of 135,000 acres-the property
to be registered. The notice will be
published for eight consecutive weeks.
This remarkable notice was prepar-
ed by the law firm of Thompson &
Wilson of Elizabeth City. J. Kenyon
Wilson himself spent nearly six months
IN Tyrrell County checking up the I'll
ties to all the property involved. En-
ginsers were employed for more than
six years in getting the exact bounda-
ries of the land in question and most
of the land described has been in lit
gation for the past eight or ten years.
The 135,000 acres of land described
is listed for taxation by the Richmond
Cedar Works at near million dollars
and probably is worth four times that
amount. 1t embraces some Of the best
timber lands in Eastern North Caro-
lima to-day and some day, when all the
timber is cleared off, it will be among
the most desirable farm lands in the
state.
The Land Registration Act, under
which it is sought to register the pro-
perty advertised, was passed by the
General Assembly of 1917 and is pat
termed after the Torrens System of land
registration. The Act was passed af
ter much propaganda by farmers uni
onists and was designed to be of es-
pecial benefit to the small landholder,
enabling him to secure a state guaran-
teed title to his land. The certificate
of registry secured from the State
would forever establish the owners
rights and this certificate could be used
as collateral at any bank. The endless
searching of titles is eliminated by the
Registration Act. The State for once
and for all determines the boundaries
of registered property and its certifi-
cate of registration is for all time
valid.
The Registration Act has not been
popularized because a lot of lawyers
don't like it. Under our old stystem,
every time piece of property is trans
ferred or mortgaged, lawyer gets a
fee to search title and write the. deed
or mortgage. All this is done away
with under the Land Registration Act
The owner of Registered land doesn't
have to hire lawyer to verify his til
tie; he produces his certificate of rev.
gistration and that settles it; said GER
tificate being as simple and conclusive
as a bank stock certificate or a gov
ernment bond. But because there is
lot of red tape in the matter of reg
istration and because the lawyers don't
like to see their gravy all sopped up in
one final sop, very few in North Car
olina have taken advantage of Land
Registration. One timber concern in
Pasquotank County, composed of nom
resident owners, registered a certain
tract of land in this county a few years
ago. The Magnolia Land & Lumber
Co. in Washington County registered
it's lands, Here and there about the
state few big landowners have avail
ed themselves of the Act. But most
North Carolinians have forgotten that
there is such an Act on the statute
books and even the farm papers that
once talked and talked and talked about
the need of the God blessed Torrens
System of Land Registration, have
ceased to say anything more about it.
When the Richmond Cedar Works
finally complies with all the processes
of the law and gets it's land registered
the Richmand Cedar Works will then
be forever out of Court in litigation
over its registered property. And no
greater thing could be contrived to re-
lieve the congestion of the Court Dock
cts of Tyrrell County. Big timber cor
porations operating in every county in
| Northeastern North Carolina are for
ever in the Courts seeking to defend
their own titles or to upset somebody
else's titles. If all lands were regis
tered there would be no more land suits
and the dockets of both State and Fed
eral Courts would be cleared for other
litigation. With land suits off the
dockets it might be possible to get ar
ordinary civil action disposed of in Q
reasonable period of time.
And now, if you are troubled with in
somna, take this issue of THE INDE
5 PENDENT to bed with you and try t,
| read the Notice of Summons in the cas-
of the Richmond Cedar Works vcrsu
d an army of Tyrrellonians. The motto
a takes more than thirteen columns O
y this paper, set in five point type. Sc
: in the larger type used by other week
d ly papers and small dailies, ir woul