This Act may be cited as the Land Transfer (Compulsory Registration of Titles) Act, 1924, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Land Transfer Act, 1915 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

This Act shall come into operation on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and twenty-five.

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

The Registrar shall proceed with all convenient speed, but subject to the provisions of section nineteen of the principal Act with regard to land for which no Crown grant has been issued, to bring under the principal Act all land heretofore alienated from the Crown for an estate in fee-simple and not already subject to that Act, so that all such land shall be brought under the principal Act within five years after the coming into operation of this Act, or as soon thereafter as may be.

This section shall not apply to land over which the Native title has not been extinguished.

As soon as the Examiner shall proceed, for the purposes of this Act, to examine the title to any land to which this Act applies, or the Registrar shall proceed to bring any such land under the provisions of the principal Act, application to bring that land under the principal Act shall be deemed to have been made by a person competent to make such application under the principal Act.

Except as hereinafter provided, the Examiner of Titles and the Registrar shall deal with all such applications in accordance with the provisions of the principal Act in respect of applications, and shall do all such acts in relation thereto as they, or either of them, ought to do in respect of applications under that Act.

In respect of any application under this Act it shall not be necessary—

An application under this Act shall not be capable of being withdrawn by the applicant.

The applicant shall not be entitled to direct the issue to any other person of a certificate of title to be issued upon an application under this Act.

The Registrar may at any time require every person having possession or control of any instruments constituting or in any manner affecting the title to the land the subject of an application to surrender the same to the Registrar.

Every person who refuses or neglects to surrender any [such instrument within a reasonable time after being duly required to do so commits an offence against this Act, and is liable to a penalty of five pounds for every day during which such refusal or neglect is continued.

The Registrar shall not deliver any certificate of title under the provisions of this Act to the[[person entitled to such certificate until all instruments constituting or in any manner affecting the previous title of the applicant, and being in the possession or under the control of the applicant, have been surrendered to the Registrar.

The Registrar shall issue a certificate of title for the land the subject of such application, in accordance with the provisions of the principal Act as amended by this Act, in the name of the proprietor appearing to be entitled thereto.

If in respect of any land it appears to [the Registrar and Examiner that the Registrar ought to have issued an ordinary certificate of title if application to bring that land under the provisions of the principal Act had been made by a person competent to make the same, and if the Registrar is satisfied that the applicant is in possession of the land, and that the position and boundaries of the land are sufficiently defined by the instruments of title or by any deposited plan or plans, the certificate of title shall be an ordinary certificate of title.

Save as provided in the last preceding subsection, the certificate of title to be issued under this Act shall be a limited certificate of title as hereinafter defined.

A limited certificate of title may be a certificate of title limited either as to description of parcels or as to title, or limited both as to description of parcels and as to title.

A limited certificate of title shall be in the Form B in the Second Schedule to the principal Act, with the addition, after the words “Certificate of Title under Land Transfer Act,” of the words “(Limited as to parcels),” or “(Limited as to title),” or “(Limited as to parcels and title),” as the case may require.

Notice of the issue of a certificate of title under the provisions of this Act shall be sent by the Registrar through the post by registered letter to every person having any estate or interest evidenced by such certificate of title or by any memorial endorsed thereon.

Before issuing a limited certificate of title the Registrar shall file with his records a minute signed by him clearly setting forth the acts or matters that ought to be done or proved, and the requisitions that ought to be complied with, in order to justify him in issuing an ordinary certificate of title. Such requisitions shall, if necessary, [include a requisition for the surrender of the instruments of title referred to in section twenty-one of the principal Act, and may include a requisition for the deposit of a plan of a survey of the land.

He shall thereupon send by registered letter a copy of the Registrar’s minutes through the post to the proprietor of every estate or interest in the land as evidenced by the Deeds Register or the instruments of title.

The Registrar may from time to time revise and amend the Registrar’s minutes so as to indicate which of the acts or matters or requisitions therein referred to have been done or proved or complied with, and may alter of add to such minutes, but not so as to prejudice the limited title of, or throw any onus upon, a purchaser or mortgagee, bona fide for valuable consideration, from the registered proprietor of the land, or of any estate or interest in the land, comprised in a limited certificate of title. All such revisions and additions shall be authenticated by the signature of the Registrar.

The Registrar’s minutes shall not form part of the Register for the purposes of section forty-two of the principal Act, nor shall any person other than the registered proprietor, or a person authorized in writing in that behalf by the registered proprietor, be entitled to be informed of the contents or of the nature of such minutes except pursuant to an order of the Supreme Court or of a Judge thereof.

Upon the doing of such acts or the proof of such matters, and on compliance with such requisition or requisitions, as are set forth in the Registrar’s minutes, to the satisfaction of the Registrar, he shall, at his discretion, either cancel the limited certificate of title and issue, upon payment of the prescribed fee, an ordinary certificate of title, or constitute the limited certificate of title an ordinary certificate of title by the endorsement thereon of a memorial to the effect that such certificate of title has ceased to be a certificate of title limited as to parcels, or limited as to title, or limited as to parcels and title, as the case may be, and such certificate of title shall thereupon take effect in all respects as an ordinary certificate of title.

If at any time it appears to the Registrar that by reason of lapse of time or for any other reason any act or proof or compliance set forth in the Registrar’s minutes has become unnecessary he may issue an ordinary certificate of title in lieu of a limited certificate of title, or may constitute a limited certificate of title an ordinary certificate of title in the manner provided in the last preceding subsection.

Except as otherwise provided in this Act, so long as a certificate of title continues to be limited, no new certificate of title other than a limited certificate of title shall be issued in substitution therefor, or for any part of the land comprised therein, unless in the latter case the matters in respect of which it is limited do not affect the part of he land for which such new certificate of title is issued.

Every entry on a limited certificate of title, if purporting to be duly made and signed, shall be received in all Courts of law and equity as evidence of the particulars therein set forth, and shall, as against the person named in the original limited certificate of title for any land, and all persons claiming through, under, or in trust for him, be conclusive evidence that the person named in such entry is seised or possessed of the estate or interest of which he is expressed to be the registered proprietor.

Except as otherwise provided in this Act, all the provisions of the principal Act shall, so far as the circumstances of the case will admit, apply with respect to the land comprised in a limited certificate of title, and to the registration of instruments and other matters affecting the same, save that the title of the proprietor of an estate or interest in any land comprised in a limited certificate of title shall be indefeasible only against the person named in the original limited certificate of title for such land, and all persons claiming through, under, or in trust for him:

Provided that a limited certificate of title, and the memorials entered thereon of outstanding interests in the land comprised therein, shall be evidence or conclusive evidence, as the case may be, of the matters referred to in section sixty-eight of the principal Act, subject only to—

Sections fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty-one, sixty-eight, seventy-two, one hundred and ninety-seven, and one hundred and ninety-eight of the principal Act shall, in their application to a limited certificate of title, be deemed to be modified accordingly.

Notwithstanding the provisions of section sixty of the principal Act, the issue of a limited certificate of title for any land shall not stop the running of time under the Statutes of Limitations in favour of any person in adverse possession of such land at the time of the issue of such certificate, or in favour of any person claiming through or under him.

So long as any land continues to be comprised in a limited certificate of title any person claiming to be seised or possessed of an estate of freehold in such land or any part thereof—

may make an application under the provisions of the principal Act as if this Act had not been passed and the limited certificate of title had not been issued. The Examiner and Registrar shall deal with such application in the manner provided in the principal Act, and if they are satisfied as to the grounds of the applicant’s claim the Registrar shall in due course issue an ordinary certificate of title to the applicant, and shall call in and cancel or correct the limited certificate of title, as the case may require, under the powers conferred upon him by the principal Act for the correction of errors.

No action shall lie against the Registrar-General by the registered proprietor of any land, or of any estate or interest in land, comprised in any certificate of title limited as to title by reason of the title or the priority of title of any person mentioned in paragraph (b), (c), or (d) of subsection one or in subsection three of section sixteen hereof.

Where by the Registrar’s minutes the existence, or the probable or possible existence, of a title to any estate or interest in land is indicated, no dealing with that estate or interest shall be capable of being registered until the estate or interest, if capable of registration, is registered.

The registered title to any estate or interest less than freehold evidenced by a limited certificate of title or by a memorial endorsed thereon shall be deemed to be limited to the same extent as that certificate so long as the certificate continues to be a limited certificate of title, and it shall not be necessary for the Registrar to place any notice of such limitation upon the instrument creating or evidencing such estate or interest.

After the expiration of twelve years from the date of the first certificate of title limited as to title for any land—

The foregoing provisions of this section shall not operate so as to extend any period after the expiration of which any such claim or action would have been barred, or any such estate or interest would have been extinguished, by virtue of any other Act or law.

A caveat in the Form K in the Second Schedule to the principal Act shall not be capable of being lodged in respect of an application under this Act, but any person entitled to lodge a caveat in the said form in the case of an application under the principal Act may register under the Deeds Registration Act, 1908, a caveat in the Form No. 1 in the Schedule to this Act at any time prior to the issue of a certificate of title in respect of the land to which the application under this Act relates.

When the Registrar proceeds with an application in respect of any land against which a caveat in the said Form No. 1 has been registered as aforesaid he shall include in the Registrar’s minutes a minute in respect of the claim of the caveator.

Any occupier of land the subject of an application under the provisions of this Act, and any adjoining occupier or proprietor, may, so long as any such land is comprised in a certificate of title limited as to parcels, lodge a caveat in the Form No. 2 in the Schedule to this Act at any time after the issue of such certificate of title.

The provisions of sections one hundred and forty-eight, one hundred and fifty-two, one hundred and fifty-four, one hundred and fifty-five, one hundred and fifty-six, and one hundred and fifty-seven, and of subsection one of section one hundred and forty-seven of the principal Act shall, with the necessary modifications, apply to caveats in the Form No. 1 in the Schedule to this Act:

Provided that a caveat in the said Form No. 1 shall not prevent the registration of any dealing with the land comprised in any certificate of title limited as to title.

Notice of the issue of a certificate of title under the provisions of this Act shall be sent by the Registrar by registered letter through the post to the caveator of every caveat in the Form No. 1 in the Schedule to this Act registered against the land comprised in such certificate of title.

Subject to the provisions of this Act, the provisions of the principal Act in respect of caveats in the Form K in the Second Schedule to the principal Act shall, with the necessary modifications, apply to caveats in the Form No. 2 in the Schedule to this Act.

When a certificate of title is issued under the provisions of this Act to trustees (other than trustees of public reserves) who have no express power to sell the land comprised in such certificate of title, it shall be the duty of the Registrar to register upon such certificate of title a memorial referring to this section, and to enter a Registrar’s caveat for the protection of the interests of persons beneficially interested under the trust.

The Registrar shall not be bound on an application in that behalf to issue an ordinary certificate of title, or to issue an ordinary certificate of title in lieu of a certificate of title limited as to parcels, or to constitute a certificate of title limited as to parcels an ordinary certificate of title—

The Registrar shall give such notices in any case in which it appears to him that the land, or part of the land, in respect of which an ordinary certificate of title is proposed to be issued or constituted is included in the title of an adjoining occupier or proprietor as evidenced by the Deeds Register or by a certificate of title limited as to parcels of the land of an adjoining occupier or proprietor.

The Registrar may from time to time, upon such evidence as he deems sufficient, amend the description of parcels in, or the plan upon, a certificate of title limited as to parcels, but not so as to exclude from such description any land of which the proprietor is in possession and to which he is rightfully entitled for the estate or interest evidenced by such certificate of title.

No action for the recovery of damages shall lie against the Registrar-General by the registered proprietor of land comprised in any certificate of title limited as to parcels, or by any other person, by reason of any error or omission in the description of the parcels of land comprised in such certificate of title.

Any deed affecting any land brought under the principal Act in pursuance of the provisions of this Act which might have been registered under the provisions of the Deeds Registration Act, 1908, if this Act had not been passed may, if such deed bears date prior to, or within six months after, the date of the first certificate of title for such land, be registered under the principal Act notwithstanding that it is not an instrument in one of the forms prescribed by the principal Act.

Save as otherwise provided in this section, no fee and no contribution to the Assurance Fund shall be payable in respect of the bringing of land under the principal Act, whether by virtue of the provisions of the principal Act or of this Act.

The fee prescribed by regulations under the principal Act for advertising notices of applications under the provisions of that Act shall continue to be payable.

The fee for the first certificate of title issued for any land upon an application under the provisions of the principal Act or of this Act shall be the sum of one pound five shillings. Such fee shall not be required to be paid until such certificate of title is required to be delivered by the Registrar to the person entitled thereto, or to be cancelled, or until a dealing with the land or with any estate or interest in the land comprised in such certificate of title is presented for registration. The provisions of section fifty of the principal Act, excepting the proviso thereto, shall apply to such fee.