The Short Title of this Act is “The Land Transfer Act Amendment Act, 1880.”

In this Act—

In addition to the meanings assigned to them in the Act, the following terms shall have and shall be deemed and construed to have had, as from the passing of the Act, the extended meanings hereinafter assigned to them respectively, that is to say,—

The fourth section of “The Land Transfer Act 1870 Amendment Act, 1876,” is hereby repealed.

This Act shall be read with and as a part of the said Acts.

Any present or future mortgagee or encumbrancee who shall have become entitled under the provisions of the Act to exercise any power of sale by virtue thereof, may apply to a Registrar or Deputy-Registrar of the Supreme Court, who shall be resident within the land registration district in which the land intended to be sold is situate, to conduct such sale.

Such Registrar or Deputy Registrar shall thereupon fix a convenient time (being within three months of such application) and a convenient place for such sale, and shall approve proper conditions of sale, and employ an auctioneer, and shall do all other necessary acts for effectuating such sale, without being entitled to any percentage or other remuneration: Provided that no sale shall be made under the provisions of this Act until such Registrar or Deputy Registrar shall have been satisfied that all demands and notices, if any, required by the Act, or by the terms of such mortgage or encumbrance, have been given and made.

It shall be lawful for the mortgagee or encumbrancee to be a bidder at any such sale, and to become the purchaser of the land or any part thereof.

In the event of the mortgagee or encumbrancee being declared the purchaser, the Registrar or Deputy Registrar who shall have conducted such sale, or his successor in office, shall, on being required so to do, execute a transfer to such mortgagee or encumbrancee of the land sold; and such transfer shall be expressed to be made in exercise of such power of sale, and of the provisions of this Act, and shall be signed by such Registrar or Deputy Registrar or his successor in office in his own proper name, with the addition of his official description.

Every transfer lawfully made and executed as aforesaid may be registered under the provisions of the Act, and upon such registration the land or the estate or interest therein expressed to be transferred shall vest in the transferee absolutely, subject to all such estates, interests, and charges as shall have been registered prior to and are not affected by the mortgage or encumbrance under which such transfer has been executed, but freed and discharged from all other estates, interests, and charges whatsoever.

Land in respect of which any person is entitled to a grant from the Crown may, if the person entitled to such grant became so entitled prior to the constitution of the Land Registrar’s district within which such land is situate, be brought under the provisions of the said Acts by application in manner hereafter provided.

Every such application shall be made by the person or persons entitled to an equitable estate in fee-simple in possession in entirety in such land, and shall be authorized by the Governor in manner hereinafter provided; and such applications shall be in the like form and shall be dealt with in the like manner in every respect as if a Crown grant for such land had actually issued, except that from such applications the words having reference to the land the subject thereof having been granted shall be omitted.

Any person who shall have become entitled to a Crown grant of land since the constitution of the land registration district within which such land is situated, or the person who shall have become subsequently entitled under the provisions of the said Acts or either of them, or under any Act of the General Assembly of New Zealand, to be registered as proprietor of such land for an estate of freehold in possession, shall be entitled to receive a certificate of title for the same subject to all registered estates and interests, which certificate the District Land Registrar is hereby empowered to issue on receipt of an authority from the Governor in manner hereinafter provided; and every certificate so issued shall be in lieu of a Crown grant, and shall, when embodied in the register-book, be as valid for all intents and purposes as if a Crown grant for the land included therein had been previously duly issued and registered.

Every authority to be given by the Governor shall be in writing, signed by him, and shall specify the name and description of the person or persons entitled to such grant, and, if more than one, whether as joint tenants or tenants in common, and the date whereon the right to such grant accrued, together with a description of the land sufficient to identify the same, the correctness of which shall be certified by the Surveyor-General of the colony or by a deputy appointed by him for the purpose; and such authority shall also state whether such land is intended to be held in trust as a public reserve or otherwise, or is subject to any road or other reservation or restriction, and such authority shall be conclusive evidence to the District Land Registrar of the matters hereby required to be therein stated.

The provisions of section thirty-five of the Act shall extend and apply to land brought under the Act under the provisions hereof; and all land for which a certificate of title in lieu of grant shall be issued as aforesaid shall be deemed to have been brought under the provisions of the Act by grant.

If, under any Act of the General Assembly, or by any other lawful authority, the land comprised in any certificate issued under the provisions of this Act or of the said Acts, or either of them, is liable to have a road or railroad taken and laid out thereon for public use, a memorandum to that effect shall be subscribed or indorsed on the said certificate by the District Land Registrar, and the said land shall be held subject to such liability: Provided that this clause shall not apply to certificates already issued under the said Acts.

When the said road or railroad is taken and laid off, a new certificate may be issued by the District Land Registrar, on which such road or railroad shall be delineated; and the same shall thereupon and thereby be and be deemed to be excluded from the said certificate, and shall thenceforth be a road or railroad for public use.

In every case in which an appeal may be had to the Supreme Court or a Judge thereof, under the provisions of the Act, from the decision of any District Land Registrar acting also as Examiner of Titles in any district, it shall be lawful for the person dissatisfied with such decision to refer the same, in the first instance, to the Registrar-General of Land, whose decision shall be binding on the District Land Registrar; and there shall be the like appeal to the Supreme Court from the decision of the Registrar-General as from the decision of a District Land Registrar.

It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council from time to time to fix the fees to be charged under this Act, and to vary and alter the same, and also to declare when such fees shall be payable and by whom they shall be received.