insane persons, incompetents in general and unknown persons without due process of law as some of the statutes now in force in this State. As illustrations, mention might be made of Section 3753, Mills' proceedings before District Courts to restore records; Section 3759, courts having equity jurisdiction have power to make inquiry; Section 3350, partition-unknown and all persons, how brought in; 3351, unknown parties, guardians, summons, publication, guardian ad litem; Section 3358, concerning partition proceeding, confirmation and judgment.

Those provisions and many others in our statutes are certainly as drastic, if not more so, than any requirement necessary to the proper administration of the Torrens system.

The initial registration is substantially a proceeding in rem in its broadest sense; an action to quiet title, a bill of peace.

The judgment acts upon the land and is conclusive upon all persons, known or unknown, citizens of this or any other State, compos or non-compos, aged or infant. The proceeding might be classified under that head of equity jurisprudence called quia timet.

The policy of the system is to adjudicate upon the validity of the title. If under our present laws we are authorized to maintain suits that are in the nature of partition suits; suits to restore lost records or documents; suits to declare perfect or quiet title to land within the jurisdiction; suits to establish boundaries; suits to confirm tax titles; suits to determine the extent of incumbrance on land within the jurisdiction; suits to remove incumbrance on title to land within the jurisdiction, or any other proceeding by which our courts are authorized to entertain proceedings and adjudicate upon the title to land and enter decrees affecting the rights of nonresident and unknown persons, there would be nothing novel about the initial registration or any other proceeding required by the Torrens system.

We do not mean to say that all of the above mentioned proceedings are in direct terms permissible in this State. But it is probably not stating the matter too broadly to say that the result

sought to be obtained in any of those proceedings can be accomplished under our practice and statutes. However, the consideration of these constitutional and statutory questions can more properly be left to a select committee of eminent specialists, whom the writer trusts this Association will appoint, whose duties it should be to very carefully and minutely investigate all possible phases of this proposed system as affected by our Constitution and laws, and to report the results of their investigation to the next General Assembly.

In his letter of June 14, written at the request of Governor Crane of Massachusetts, Mr. Clarence C. Smith, the recorder of the Court of Land Registration, says: "The whole advantage of Torrens registration is contained in the simple provisions whereby the certificate is made, in the absence of fraud or forgery, conclusive evidence of ownership, no search beyond a simple reading of the certificate itself being necessary. Title to real estate is thus so established and maintained that sales and pledges can be made as safely and rapidly as with certificates of stock, bonds, or other forms of personal property."

INCREASE OF RECORDS.

One of the many great objections to our present system is the enormous and ever increasing accumulation of records. In New York county, N. Y., there are over 8,000 volumes of real estate records, and they are increasing at the rate of 250 volumes per year. In Cook county, Illinois, there are about 8,000 volumes of 640 pages each that have all accumulated since the great fire of October, 1871, and these records are increasing at the rate of nearly 500 volumes per year. They have a block system in New York and shorter forms, which is the reason they have less volumes and a slower rate of increase than in Chicago.

The number of volumes of real estate records in all of the larger cities of the country is becoming perfectly appalling to the legal profession. Under date of June 26, 1902, Mr. Julius Aichele, clerk and recorder of Arapahoe county, Colorado, writes:

"There are now 1,125 volumes of real estate records in this office. This number is being increased each year by about thirty-three or thirty-four volumes, averaging 500 pages each. The number of real estate papers which were filed during the year 1901 in this office is 16,208."

The question of storage alone of this immense mass, which is merely evidence of title-it is not the title--is becoming an important question for every county. But the most serious question is the fact that all of these thousands of volumes have got to be conned over and over again, often page by page, at each transaction affecting the title. The labor imposed upon the legal fraternity as the hundreds and thousands of volumes increase is so enormous that it is outrageous, and, as one author says, "barbarous."

And, after all, what does all this drudgery amount to? No amount of research suffices for but the one conveyance or transaction. The labor must be all gone over again each time, unless the owner desires to patronize a title insurance company. The writer recently had a forcible and unique illustration of this feature of our system. A client brought into the office an abstract for examination; it was examined in due course and an opinion rendered the next day, a fee charged and paid without objection. The writer then learned, in the course of conversation, that his uncle, the late Hon. Joseph W. Taylor, had passed upon the same abstract nearly twenty-five years ago. And it might be added that it is not only possible, but probable, that if my son should be alive a quarter of a century hence, he may be called upon to examine the same. title, with all the continuations of the abstract, and again be paid a fee for going over the same work that his ancestors have performed; and generations of the Taylor family yet unborn may continue to be paid fees for making the same re-examinationsunless some Colorado legislature is progressive enough to relieve them and the owners of the property of that burden.

ASSURANCE FUND.

At first impulse it may seem objectionable to require the State or the county to go into the title guaranty or insurance business.

But when the people understand the thoroughness of this system, and the almost utter impossibility of there ever being any claim made upon this fund, it is hardly reasonable to suppose that there will be any serious opposition to the system on account of that provision. In fact, the assurance provision is not an essential feature of the Torrens system. It was not adopted in England until 1897. But it has been in use for forty years in some of the other countries above mentioned, and has worked so admirably that it has been adopted and is now in practical operation in nearly every place where the Torrens system is in use. The charge is almost invariably one-tenth of one per cent. of the assessd valuation of the property, and is collected only at the time of the initial registration and when the property passes by descent. In that respect it somewhat resembles a very slight inheritance tax. As an illustration of the workings of this feature, it may be stated that there has never yet been a claim filed against this fund in the United States. And the latest information obtainable is to the effect that no claim upon the assurance fund has ever been made in England, notwithstanding that millions and millions of dollars worth of property have come under the operation of this system in that country during the past five years.

Hon. J. O. Bourne, registrar of titles at Brisbane, Queensland, in speaking of the benefits of the Torrens system in that country, says: "There is security also in the titles issued by the office which did not formerly exist, as every transfer is carefully examined by both a legal examiner and a professional draftsman, and errors are rectified before the title is issued. As the office is constantly discovering such errors, especially in connection with the plans and descriptions lodged with the transfers, there could be no doubt that under the old system these errors would be passed unnoticed and afford an abundant crop of future litigation, which is thus avoided by the operation of the Torrens system. It has thus become exceedingly popular, and its workings give great satisfaction to the public, who, in ordinary cases, prepare their own documents and thus save the expense of professional assistance.

The office has now (1899) been in existence thirty-eight years, and the rapid increase of the work performed in it, as shown by these statistics, is a fair indication of the popularity of the sys

tem.

"The transactions since the establishment of the office number 1,397,910, and there has only been ONE INSTANCE OF LOSS through an incorrect title having been issued. This notable immunity from error in titles issued under this system has engendered the utmost confidence in the validity of our titles on the part of the public."

The statistics furnished by Mr. Bourne show that the total area of lands alienated by the crown to the end of the year 1899 was 13,164,766 acres, and of this 13,148,200 acres have been brought under the Torrens act, leaving only 16,566 acres outstanding and still under the operation of the old registration of deeds act. These figures demonstrate the favor with which the Torrens act is regarded in Queensland.

Objection to this feature has been vigorously urged in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, Illinois and Minnesota, as well as in the United States Supreme Court, on the ground that it permits the taking of one man's property and giving it to another without compensation. But the courts answer saying that in the first place that is not true, and, secondly, even if it were, the owner of the property need not take his title into court unless he wants to.

It is purely optional with him whether he does or not under the system as it now prevails in all of the States. So that he can very easily avoid paying that tax by keeping out of court. And as to the tax upon the property at the time of the descent or devise, the State has ample authority to impose such conditions as its legislature may see fit. That question has been thoroughly well settled in the inheritance tax cases.

PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE.

Nearly all of the students of this system give it as their opinion that the only proper and logical course to pursue in this matter is to make the registration of all lands compulsory upon the