The Short Title of this Act is “The Property Law Consolidation Act, 1883,” and it shall come into force on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four.

In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

Where any land shall be conveyed to any person without any words of limitation, such conveyance shall be construed to pass the fee-simple or other whole estate or interest which the party conveying had power to dispose of.

An estate of freehold, to take effect at a future time, may be created by any deed by which a present estate of freehold may be created.

Any estate or interest which can be created by will in any chattel real may also be created by deed.

A contingent remainder shall be capable of taking effect notwithstanding the destruction or determination or merger of the particular estate immediately preceding, and notwithstanding it may have been created expectant on the termination of a term of years.

Whenever any deed or will shall contain a limitation to any person for life, followed mediately or immediately by a limitation to the heirs or the heirs of the body of such person, the latter limitation shall not be deemed to coalesce with the former, but shall take effect as a contingent remainder.

No estate shall be void on account of its being made to depend on a possibility upon a possibility.

Any real or personal property may be conveyed by a husband to his wife, or by a wife to her husband, either alone or together with any other persons.

Any two or more persons, in whom any real or personal property shall be vested as tenants in common, may by deed declare that they will be joint tenants thereof, and thereupon the same shall be vested in them as joint tenants.

A person may convey, assign, or transfer property to himself jointly with another or others.

The executor or administrator of a deceased mortgagee shall have power, upon payment of the moneys remaining due on account of the principal and interest of the mortgage debt, to convey by deed the property comprised in the mortgage, and such conveyance shall be as effectual as if the same had been made by the heir or devisee of the mortgagee, their heirs or assigns.

Whenever any mortgagee or one or more of several mortgagees shall die, the persons for the time being legally entitled to receive the mortgage debt shall have the same powers to sell and convey and to reconvey the land mortgaged as if the whole legal and equitable interest in the said mortgage debt and the whole legal estate in the land mortgaged, and also the powers of sale which the mortgagee or mortgagees might have exercised if living, had been vested in such persons.

And every sale effected and every conveyance and reconveyance executed by such persons shall be as valid and have the same effect as if such legal and equitable interest and legal estate and powers had been respectively so vested.

A mortgagee shall not in any case be entitled to foreclose the equity of redemption.

No land shall be charged or affected, by way of equitable mortgage or otherwise, by reason of any deposit of title-deeds relating thereto, whether or not such deposit shall be accompanied by a written memorandum of the intent with which the same shall have been made.

No vendor of any land shall have any equitable lien thereon by reason of the non-payment of the purchase-money or any part of the purchase-money for the same.

Where the reversion of any land subject to a lease shall be merged in any remainder, or other reversion, or future estate, the person entitled to the estate into which such reversion shall have merged, and his heirs, executors, or administrators, shall have the same remedy for non-performance of the conditions or covenants expressed or implied in the lease as the person who would for the time being have been entitled to the mesne reversion which shall have been merged would have had.

No claim of a cestui que trust against his trustee for any property held on an express trust, or in respect of any breach of such trust, shall be held to be barred by any statute of limitations.

An estate for life without impeachment of waste shall not confer or be deemed to have conferred upon the tenant for life any legal right to commit waste of the description known as equitable waste, unless an intention to confer such right shall expressly appear by the instrument creating such estate.

There shall not, after the commencement of this Act, be any merger by operation of law only of any estate the beneficial interest in which would not be deemed to be merged or extinguished in equity.

A mortgagor entitled for the time being to the possession or receipt of the rents and profits of any land, as to which no notice of his intention to take possession or to enter into the receipt of the rents and profits thereof shall have been given by the mortgagee, may sue for such possession, or for the recovery of such rents or profits, or to prevent or recover damages in respect of any trespass or other wrong relative thereto, in his own name only, unless the cause of action arises upon a lease or other contract made by him jointly with any other person.

The rules of the High Court of Justice in England touching the operation and enforcement of contracts for the purchase of land shall be adopted and followed in all cases in the Supreme Court of this colony.

Any rent-charge may be apportioned in like manner as any other rent.

The release from a rent of any part of the land out of which it shall be payable shall not be a discharge of the residue of such land from the rent: Provided that, where the owner of the part which shall be released shall not be the owner of the residue of the land charged with the rent, the owner of such residue shall be entitled to the same contribution from the owner of the part released as he would have been entitled to if no release had been made.

A condition or covenant not to assign or underlet or do any other act without license shall not be released or determined by such license.

The assignment of any lease by the assignees of a bankrupt or insolvent debtor, or by the Sheriff under an execution, shall not be a breach of any condition or covenant not to assign unless the contrary shall be therein expressly declared.

A married woman may assign by deed any reversionary or other future interest in personal property as validly and effectually as she may dispose of the like interest in money to arise from the sale of land.

A married woman may, by deed, disclaim any land.

Every deed made by any married woman by virtue of this Act shall be acknowledged by her in the same manner as a deed by which she might dispose of land is required by law to be acknowledged.

Every deed, whether or not affecting property, shall be signed by the party to be bound thereby, and shall also be attested by at least one witness, but no particular form of words shall be requisite for the attestation.

Sealing shall not be necessary except when a deed is made by a corporation. Formal delivery and indenting shall not be necessary in any case.

An acknowledgment of the receipt of the consideration-money contained in the body of a deed shall be as valid and effectual in all respects as if the same had also been indorsed thereon.

Every deed executed before the passing hereof, attested in manner required or authorized by any enactment then or since in force, shall from the execution thereof be deemed as valid and effectual as if the same had been attested as prescribed in this Act.

Every deed executed as by this Act is required shall be a valid execution of a power of appointment by deed or writing (otherwise than by will), notwithstanding it may have been expressly required that such power should be executed with some additional or other form of execution or solemnity.

No partition or exchange, lease, assignment, or surrender, otherwise than by operation of law, of any land shall be valid unless the same shall be made by deed, except a lease for a term not exceeding a tenancy for one year.

Implied tenancy from year to year by payment of rent is hereby abolished.

No appointment to be made by deed or writing (otherwise than by will) in exercise of a power shall be valid, unless the same shall be executed as a deed is hereby required to be executed: Provided that no order or direction by a married woman to pay any money to which she may be entitled for her separate use shall be deemed an appointment within the meaning of this Act.

No disclaimer of any land shall be valid unless the same be made by deed or by matter of record.

Every right of entry, contingent remainder, and every contingent or executory or future estate, right, or interest in real or personal property, may be conveyed or assigned by deed:

But no person shall be empowered by this Act to dispose of any expectancy which he may have as heir, or heir of the body, or as next of kin.

Any absolute assignment by writing under the hand of the assignor (not purporting to be by way of charge only) of any debt or other legal or equitable chose in action, of which express notice in writing shall have been given to the debtor, trustee, or other person from whom the assignor would have been entitled to receive or claim such debt or chose in action, shall be and be deemed to have been effectual in law (subject to all equities which would have been entitled to priority over the right of the assignee if this Act had not passed) to pass and transfer the legal or equitable right to such debt or chose in action from the date of such notice, and all legal or equitable and other remedies for the same, and the power to give a good discharge for the same, without the concurrence of the assignor:

But, if the debtor, trustee, or other person liable in respect of such debt or chose in action shall have had notice that such assignment is disputed by the assignor or any one claiming under him, or of any other opposing or conflicting claims to such debt or chose in action, he shall be entitled, if he think fit, to call upon the several persons making claim thereto to interplead concerning the same; or he may, if he think fit, pay the same into the Court, under and in conformity with the provisions of the Acts for the relief of trustees.

A deed, according to the form set forth in the First Schedule hereto, or to the effect thereof, without livery of seisin, enrolment, or a prior lease, shall be valid and effectual to pass any land which might have been conveyed by lease and release.

When any land shall be conveyed directly and immediately to any person or body corporate, the whole legal and equitable ownership of such land shall vest in such person or body corporate.

When any land shall be so conveyed to any person or body corporate to the use of or in trust for any other person, the whole legal ownership of such estate or interest shall vest in the person or body corporate to whom the same shall be so immediately and directly conveyed, subject however to a trust for the benefit of such other person.

Every limitation which at any time heretofore might have been made by way of shifting, springing, or executory use, may be made by direct conveyance, without the intervention of uses.

The legal estate in any land shall not pass by a covenant to stand seised, or by any contract for the sale and purchase of land, or by livery of seisin.

No conveyance shall create any estate by wrong, or work a forfeiture, or have any other effect than a conveyance by lease and release would have had under any law or enactment at any time heretofore in force.

Any person not being named as a party to any deed may take an immediate benefit thereby in the same manner as he might under a deed-poll.

In every conveyance of land by way of sale, mortgage, marriage settlement, lease, and every other conveyance for valuable consideration, there shall be implied, excepting as against trustees or mortgagees, the following covenants by each conveying party severally for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, to the extent of the interest departed with by him, that is to say,—

That such conveying party hath good right and full power to convey and assure the estate and interest purported to be conveyed, and that free and clear from all incumbrances other than such as are therein mentioned:

That the party to whom such estate or interest is conveyed shall quietly enjoy the same without any disturbance by any act whatsoever of such conveying party or any person claiming under him or by any rightful act of any other person:

That such conveying party, his heirs, executors, or administrators, will, at the cost of the party requiring the same, do and execute all such acts and conveyances for the better assuring of the estate or interest thereby conveyed as by the party to whom the same is conveyed or any person claiming under him may from time to time be reasonably required.

The foregoing covenant for quiet enjoyment shall not be implied against any mortgagor, his heirs, executors, or administrators, until default in payment of the principal moneys secured by the mortgage, before which default it shall not be lawful for a mortgagee, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, to enter into possession of the mortgaged property.

In every conveyance or reconveyance by trustees or mortgagees there shall be implied the following covenant by each trustee or mortgagee severally for himself, his heirs, executors, or administrators, that is to say,—

In every conveyance of land by way of mortgage there shall be implied a covenant by the mortgagor, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns,—

In every such conveyance as last mentioned there shall be implied an obligation on the part of the mortgagee, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns, upon payment of the principal and interest at the time and in the manner mentioned in the mortgage deed, or at any time thereafter upon payment of the principal and interest then due (six clear months’ notice of an intention to pay the same having been given), at the request, cost, and charges of the mortgagor, his heirs or assigns, to return to him or them, or as he or they shall direct, the mortgage deed having indorsed thereon or annexed thereto a receipt in the form or to the effect following:—

Such receipt if given by a person shall be signed by such person and attested by at least one witness, and if given by a corporation, company, or society, shall be under their seal, or if such corporation, company, or society have no seal, then shall be signed in such manner as legal documents are authorized to be signed by them respectively, and may be registered.

Any such receipt indorsed or annexed as aforesaid shall vacate the mortgage, or further charge, or debt, and vest the estate and interest of the mortgagee of and. in the property therein comprised in the person for the time being entitled to the equity of redemption, without any reconveyance.

In every such conveyance by way of mortgage there shall be implied the following power in the mortgagee, his executors, administrators or assigns, that is to say,—

In case default shall be made for the space of three months in payment of the principal money thereby secured, or any part thereof, the mortgagee, his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall cause a written demand of payment thereof to be served on the mortgagor, his heirs or assigns, or left at his or their last or usual place of abode, or, if the mortgage be made by a corporate body, upon or with any person or officer on whom any notice or process of any kind may be legally served on behalf of such corporate body.

If default be made for the further space of three months from the service of such demand, the mortgagee, his executors, administrators, or assigns, may sell the property mortgaged, or any part thereof, and either altogether or in lots, and either by public auction or private contract, or by both of such means, and subject to such conditions as he or they may think fit, with power to buy in and to resell the same, without being liable for any loss occasioned thereby, and may make and execute all such contracts and conveyances as he or they may judge necessary for carrying into effect the powers hereby given, all which sales, contracts, and conveyances, and all matters and things hereby authorized, shall be as valid and effectual as if the mortgagor, his heirs or assigns, had made, done, or executed the same.

The receipt or receipts in writing of the mortgagee, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, shall be a sufficient discharge to any purchaser of any part of such mortgaged property for so much of his purchase-money as may be thereby expressed to be received.

No such purchaser or his representatives shall be answerable for the loss, misapplication, or non-application, or be obliged to see to the application of the purchase-money by him paid, nor shall be be concerned to inquire as to the fact of any such default or demand as aforesaid having been made.

The moneys to arise from such sale as aforesaid shall be applied, first, in payment of the expenses attending any such sale or otherwise incurred in the execution of the power of sale hereby given; secondly, in repayment of the principal money and interest remaining due, together with any costs and expenses occasioned by the non-payment thereof.

The surplus (if any) shall be paid to the mortgagor, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns.

In the construction of the next eight succeeding sections the term “mortgagee” shall extend to and include the executors, administrators, and assigns of the original mortgagee, and the term “mortgagor” shall extend to and include the heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns of the original mortgagor, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction.

It shall be lawful for any present or future mortgagee, having a power of sale by auction, to apply to the Registrar in whose district the land to be sold is situated to conduct the sale of the whole or any part of the land comprised in the mortgage.

Every Registrar by whom any land has heretofore been sold shall be deemed to have been and to be the proper Registrar to effect such sale, although be was not resident nearest to the land sold.

The said Registrar shall fix a convenient time (being within three months and not less than fourteen days of the application) and a convenient place for the sale, shall approve of proper conditions of sale, shall employ an auctioneer, and shall do all other necessary acts for effectuating the sale.

The mortgagee may be a bidder at any such sale by auction conducted as aforesaid, and become the purchaser of the land or any part thereof.

In the event of the mortgagee being declared the purchaser at any sale held under the authority of this Act, the Registrar who shall have conducted the sale, or the successor of such Registrar at the same place for the time being, shall, on demand by the mortgagee, execute a deed expressed to be made between such Registrar (describing him by his official description only) and the mortgagee, with or without the addition of any other parties, and shall contain a recital stating the fact of the sale under the aforesaid section of this Act.

Every such deed shall be executed by the Registrar by signing his personal name, with the addition of his official description, and thereupon the land therein expressed to be conveyed shall vest in the mortgagee in the same manner as if made by the mortgagee to a purchaser at a sale made in exercise of the power of sale expressed or implied in the mortgage, and such mortgagee shall have the same estate and interest in such land as if he had purchased at such sale, and no rule of law or equity had existed preventing him from purchasing and taking a conveyance.

On any sale conducted by the Registrar there shall be paid by the vendor a fee on completion of the purchase of a percentage on and to be paid out of the purchase-money, after the rate, where the purchase-money does not exceed two hundred pounds, of one per centum, and, where the purchase-money exceeds that sum, one-quarter per centum on the remainder of the purchase-money, but in no case to exceed twenty pounds. Such fees shall be paid to the Registrar, and form part of the Consolidated Fund.

Nothing in this Act shall prejudice or affect the title of mortgagees who have purchased and taken conveyances under any Act hereby repealed, nor of any person claiming or to claim under them, but, where any sale made under the provisions of any such repealed Act has not been completed by the execution of a proper conveyance, the conveyance may be made in the same manner and with the same effect as if this Act had been in force at the time of such sale being made.

When any conveyance has heretofore been executed by the Registrar or Deputy-Registrar in the name and on behalf of the mortgagor, or in the name and on behalf of his assignee whether such assignee be such by deed or operation of law, the same shall be valid and effectual, notwithstanding the mortgagor may have become bankrupt or insolvent prior to the date of such conveyance.

In every lease there shall be implied the following covenants by the lessee, for himself, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns:—

That be or they will pay the rent thereby reserved at the times therein mentioned, and all rates and taxes which may be payable in respect of the demised property during the continuance of the lease:

That be or they will keep and yield up the demised property in good and tenantable repair.

And there shall be implied the following powers in the lessor, his heirs, executors, admistrators, or assigns:—

That be or they may, by himself or themselves, or his or their agents, at all reasonable times, enter upon the demised property and view the state of repair thereof, and may serve upon the lessee, his executors, administrators, or assigns, or leave at his or their last or usual place of abode, a notice in writing of any defect, requiring him or them, within a reasonable time to be therein prescribed, to repair the same:

That whenever the rent reserved shall be in arrear for twenty-one days, be or they may levy the same by distress:

That in case the rent or any part thereof shall be in arrear for the space of six months, or in case the repairs required by such notice as aforesaid shall not have been completed within three months after the service or leaving thereof, be or they may re-enter upon the demised property and determine the estate of the lessee therein, but without releasing him from his liability in respect of the breach of any covenant therein expressed or implied.

In every conveyance of land by way of marriage-settlement there shall be implied the following powers in every tenant for life in possession of the property, or of any undivided share thereof, or in his guardian, or in the committee of his estate, or, in case there shall be no tenant for life in possession, then in the trustees of the settlement, their executors, administrators, and assigns, that is to say,—

There shall also be implied in the trustees of the settlement, their executors, administrators, or assigns, at the request in writing of any tenant for life in possession, or his guardian or committee, or, if there be no such tenant for life, then at their own discretion, the following power, that is to say,—

That they may dispose of the property in settlement or any part thereof either by way of sale or in exchange for other property of the like nature and tenure situated within the colony; or, where such property shall consist of an undivided share, may concur in a partition of the entirety of such property, and may give or take any money by way of equality of exchange or partition:

The moneys to arise from any such sale or be received for equality of exchange or partition shall, with all convenient speed, be laid out in the purchase of other property of like nature and tenure situate within this colony; and, moreover, any property so purchased or taken in exchange shall be settled in the same manner and subject to the same trusts, powers, and provisoes as the property so sold or given in exchange:

Until the moneys received in consequence of such sale, exchange, or partition shall be laid out as aforesaid, the same shall be invested on Government or real security in this colony, and the interest thereof shall be paid to the persons entitled to the rents and profits of the property in settlement.

Whenever the person who may have executed or shall hereafter execute any power of attorney (whether such person were or be at the time within the colony or not) shall not have declared or shall not declare therein that such power shall continue in force only until his death or revocation thereof, then and in every such case such power shall, so far as may concern all contracts entered into bond fide, and all deeds or instruments of any kind bond fide made or signed operate and continue in force until notice of his death or of the revocation of such power shall have been received by the attorney named therein.

Every act (within the scope of the powers and authority conferred upon the said attorney to such extent as aforesaid) heretofore or hereafter to be done or suffered by him after such death or revocation as aforesaid, and before notice thereof shall have been received, shall be as effectual in all respects as if such death or revocation had not happened or been made.

A solemn declaration made by any such attorney, under the provisions and by virtue of “The Justices of the Peace Act, 1882,” to the effect that he has not received any notice or information of the revocation of such power of attorney by death or otherwise, shall, if made immediately before or after any such act as aforesaid, be taken to be conclusive proof of such non-revocation at the times thereof respectively.

In every case where any of the covenants or powers implied by virtue of this Act would be implied by or in any woman if unmarried, the same shall be implied by or in her husband if she shall be married.

Every covenant which shall be implied by virtue of this Act shall have the same force and effect and be enforced in the same manner as if it had been set out at length in the deed wherein the same shall be implied.

Every covenant and power to be implied in any deed by virtue of this Act may be negatived or modified by express declaration in the deed or indorsed thereon.

Neither the word “grant” nor the word “exchange” shall have the effect of creating any warranty or right of re-entry.

In an action for partition, if it appears to the Court that, by reason of the nature of the property to which the action relates, or of the number of the parties interested or presumptively interested therein, or of the absence or disability of some of those parties, or of any other circumstance, a sale of the property and a distribution of the proceeds would be more beneficial for the parties interested than a division of the property between or among them, the Court may, if it thinks fit, on the request of any of the parties interested, and notwithstanding the dissent or disability of any others of them, direct a sale of the property accordingly, and may give all necessary or proper consequential directions.

In an action for partition, if the party or parties interested, individually or collectively, to the extent of one moiety or upwards, in the property to which the action relates, request the Court to direct a sale of the property and a distribution of the proceeds, instead of a division of the property between or among the parties interested, the Court shall, unless it sees good reason to the contrary, direct a sale of the property accordingly, and give all necessary or proper consequential directions.

In an action for partition, if any party interested in the property to which the action relates requests the Court to direct a sale of the property and a distribution of the proceeds, instead of a division of the property between or among the parties interested, the Court may, if it thinks fit, unless the other parties interested in the property or some of them undertake to purchase the share of the party requesting a sale, direct a sale of the property, and give all necessary or proper consequential directions;

And, in case of such undertaking being given, the Court may order a valuation of the share of the party requesting a sale, in such manner as the Court thinks fit, and may give all necessary or proper consequential directions.

Any person may maintain such action against any one or more of the parties interested without serving the other or others (if any) of those parties, and it shall not be competent to any defendant in the action to object for want of parties; and at the hearing of the cause the Court may direct such inquiries as to the nature of the property and the persons interested therein and other matters as it thinks necessary or proper, with a view to an order for partition or sale being made on further consideration:

But all persons who, if this Act had not been passed, would have been necessary parties to the action, shall be served with notice of the decree or order on the hearing, and, after such notice, shall be bound by the proceedings as if they had been originally parties to the action, and shall be deemed parties to the action, and all such persons may have liberty to attend the proceedings, and any such person may, within a time limited by general orders, apply to the Court to add to the decree or order.

On any sale under the four last foregoing sections of this Act, the Court may, if it thinks fit, allow any of the parties interested in the property to bid at the sale, on such terms as to non-payment of deposit, or as to setting-off or accounting for the purchase-money or any part thereof instead of paying the same, or as to any other matters, as to the Court seem reasonable.

Section forty-one of “The Trustee Act, 1883,” shall extend and apply to cases where in actions for partition the Court directs a sale instead of a division of the property.

Sections twenty-two to twenty-four, both inclusive, of “The Leases and Sales of Settled Estates Act, 1865,” shall extend and apply to money to be received on any sale effected under the authority of this Act.

In an action for partition the Court may make such order as it thinks just respecting costs up to the time of the hearing.

When any person shall have died on or after the first day of October, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, or shall hereafter die seised of or entitled to any land which shall at the time of his death be charged with the payment of any sum or sums of money by way of mortgage, and such person shall not by his will or deed or other document have signified any contrary or other intention, the heir or devisee to whom such land shall descend or be devised shall not be entitled to have the mortgage debt discharged or satisfied out of the personal estate, or any other real estate of such person, but the land so charged shall, as between the different persons claiming through or under the deceased person, be primarily liable to the payment of all mortgage debts with which the same shall be charged, every part thereof according to its value hearing a proportionate part of the mortgage debts charged on the whole thereof.

Nothing in the last-preceding section contained shall affect or diminish any right of the mortgagee of such lands to obtain full payment or satisfaction of his mortgage debt, either out of the personal estate of the person so dying as aforesaid or otherwise, nor shall affect the rights of any person claiming under or by virtue of any will, deed, or document made before the first day of October, in the year last above mentioned.

In the construction of the will of any person who may die after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy, a general direction that the debts or that all the debts of the testator shall be paid out of his personal estate shall not be deemed to be a declaration of an intention contrary to or other than the rule established by the eightieth section of this Act, unless such contrary or other intention shall be further declared by words expressly, or by necessary implication, referring to all or some of the testator’s debts or debt charged by way of mortgage on any part of his real estate.

All the acts, powers, and duties with respect to the appointment of persons to be Commissioners for taking the acknowledgments by married women of deeds executed by them under the Act of the third and fourth years of the reign of King William IV., chapter seventy-four, to be done by or given to or imposed upon the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, or by, to, or upon any Judge of the said Court may be done, exercised, and performed by any Judge of the Supreme Court.

Every Commissioner appointed under the last preceding section of this Act may do, exercise, and perform all the acts, powers, and duties which may be done, exercised, and performed by a Commissioner appointed for a like purpose in England under the Act hereinbefore mentioned, subject, however, to the provisions of this Act.

Every deed, acknowledged by a married woman before a Judge or Commissioner for taking acknowledgments of married women, and certified by indorsement or writing thereon signed by such Judge or Commissioner to have been so acknowledged, and that the woman had been examined as to her knowledge of the contents of such deed, had consented thereto, and that she was of full age and understanding, shall be valid and effectual to pass her interest in the property thereby affected without any further certificate or affidavit.

The expression “Judge” or “Commissioner” in this section mentioned shall extend and apply to a Judge of any Court of judicature, and also to any Commissioner for taking the acknowledgments of married women in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or in any British colony, appointed by any Judge of the Supreme Court of this colony.

Every Resident Magistrate shall, by virtue of his office, be a perpetual Commissioner for taking acknowledgments of married women without any other appointment.

Every infant upon or in contemplation of his or her marriage, with the sanction of the Court, may make a valid and binding settlement or contract for a settlement of all or any part of his or her property or property over which he or she has any power of appointment, whether real or personal, and whether in possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy.

Every conveyance, appointment, and assignment of such real or personal estate, or contract to make a conveyance, appointment, or assignment thereof, executed by such infant, with the approbation of the Court, for the purpose of giving effect to such settlement, shall be as valid and effectual as if the person executing the same were of the full age of twenty-one years.

In case any appointment under a power of appointment, or any disentailing assurance, shall have been executed by any infant tenant-in-tail under the last-preceding section and such infant shall afterwards die under age, such appointment or disentailing assurance shall thereupon become absolutely void.

The sanction of the Court to any such settlement or contract for a settlement may be given upon petition presented by the infant or his or her guardian in a summary way, without the bringing of an action.

If there be no guardian the Court may require a guardian to be appointed or not, as it shall think fit; and the Court also may, if it shall think fit, require that any persons interested or appearing to be interested in the property should be served with notice of such petition.

Nothing in the three last preceding sections of this Act contained shall apply to any male infant under the age of twenty years, or to any female infant under the age of seventeen years.

And the authority conferred by such sections shall not extend to powers of which it is expressly declared that they shall not be exercised by an infant.

The provisions of the Act, passed in the third and fourth years of the reign of His late Majesty King William IV., intituled “An Act for the Amendment of the Law relating to Dower,” shall extend to the dower of any widows who shall have married previously to the second day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.

The Judges of the Supreme Court or any three of them, of whom the Chief Justice shall be one, from time to time may make and vary, alter, or rescind general rules or orders, fixing scales of fees to be charged by solicitors in all or any matters of conveyancing business transacted by them.

Such scales may be so framed as to enable the Registrar to allow on taxation, within certain limits, fees and charges at a higher or lower rate, having regard not only to the length of any deed, contract, or other document in respect of which such fees or charges are made, but also to the skill and labour employed or required in the preparation or perusal thereof, and the responsibility incurred by the solicitor in the transaction.

In the taxation of any bill of costs or fees for conveyancing business the Registrar shall be guided by the general rules and orders for the time being in force for that purpose, and, pending the issue of any such rules and orders, and subject to such rules and orders when issued, the Registrar shall have regard not only to the length of any deed, contract, or other document in respect of which any fees or charges are made, but also to the skill and labour employed or required in the preparation or perusal thereof, and the responsibility incurred by the solicitor in the transaction.

Every instrument of any kind whatsoever, which has been or hereafter may be duly signed, executed, or acknowledged out of the Colony of New Zealand, shall, so far as the signing, execution, or acknowledgment thereof is concerned, be receivable in evidence in every Court of justice in the colony, and before any authority or person having by law or consent of parties authority to hear and receive evidence in the colony, if such signing, execution, or acknowledgment is verified by the witness thereto if only one, or by one of the witnesses thereto if more than one, in either of the following ways, that is to say,—

If such instrument is signed, executed, or acknowledged in any part of the British dominions beyond the limits of the colony, then in accordance with the provisions in that behalf contained in the Act of the Imperial Parliament now known by the short title of “The Statutory Declarations Act, 1835,” or in accordance with the provisions of any enactment in force, in any part of the British dominions where any such verification shall take place, respecting the verification of the signing, execution, or acknowledgment of instruments to be used abroad;

And the mention in the declaration or affidavit referring to such signing, execution, or acknowledgment, or in any certificate written at the foot or in continuation thereof or attached thereto, signed by a notary public, and under his seal of office, or signed by the Mayor, Provost, or other Chief Magistrate of any corporate town with the seal of the Corporation attached, of the law under which any such declaration or affidavit is made, shall be sufficient proof of such law:

If any such instrument shall be signed, executed, or acknowledged out of the British dominions, then by an affidavit or solemn declaration as may be lawful in such cases to be made according to the law of such foreign country, and certified by the British-Consul or Vice-Consul there under his seal of office.

Where in any Act or Ordinance now in force reference is made to any Act or Ordinance hereby repealed, such first-mentioned Act or Ordinance shall be construed and shall operate as if reference had been made therein to this Act instead of to such repealed Act or Ordinance.

The Acts, Ordinances, and parts of Acts enumerated in the Second Schedule hereto are hereby repealed.

But this repeal shall not affect—

The past operation of any Act or Ordinance, or part of an Act or Ordinance, hereby repealed;

Any deed or instrument made, signed, or acknowledged, or any proceeding taken or pending, or anything duly done or suffered, or any estate, right, title, interest, or benefit created, conferred, or acquired under or by virtue of any such Act or Ordinance;

Or any obligation or duty undertaken or imposed, or any forfeiture incurred, expressly or by implication, under or by virtue of any deed or instrument as aforesaid, or under any Act or Ordinance, or part of an Act or Ordinance, hereby repealed.

Nothing contained in this Act shall limit or otherwise affect any of the provisions of “The Administration Act, 1879,” or “The Land Transfer Act, 1870,” and any Acts amending the same.