Priority of registration will in all cases prevail, unless before such prior registration there shall have been actual notice of the prior instrument to the party claiming under the prior registration.

The Revised Statutes, cap. 111, now comprises the whole Registry Law as it exists in this Province.

By its provisions there is to be a "separate Registry Office in every riding, county, union of counties and city in Upper Canada. A registrar is appointed for each whose duty it is to attend at and keep his office open each day from 10 to 4 o'clock, holidays excepted, and no instrument shall be registered by him on any holiday, nor received except within such mentioned hours.

Grants from the Crown are now registered in the County Registrar's Office, and any instrument whatever, in any manner affecting land in Upper Canada, either in law or equity, may now be registered, and all instruments are registered at full length.

The registration of Crown Grants is done by producing the original to the registrar and filing a true copy thereof, sworn to by some one who has compared the same with the original. All other instruments, except wills, are registered by depositing with the registrar the original or a duplicate, with the necessary affidavits. Wills should in every case be registered within one year after the death. of the testator, and are registered by producing the original and filing with the registrar a true copy, accompanied by an affidavit of one of the witnesses to the will, proving its execution, or by the production of probate or letters of administration with the will annexed, under the seal of any Court in this Province, or in Great Britain and Ireland, or any British Colony, Province or Possession, having jurisdiction therein, and by filing a copy of such probate or letters and an affidavit verifying such copy.

The proof required for the registration of other instruments than Crown Grants or wills, is as follows, viz. :— An affidavit by one of the witnesses to such instrument,

written on the instrument, setting forth the witness' name, residence and occupation; that he was present at the execution of the original and duplicate (if any); where the instrument was executed; and that he knew the parties executing or some of them, as the case may be, and that he is a subscribing witness thereto.

The Superior and County Courts have power by order to compel a witness to any instrument, to make the necessary affidavit for registration, upon being tendered his necessary expenses therefor.

In case of the death of a witness, the execution of the instrument may be proved before the judge of any County Court, and the instrument may be registered upon such judge's certificate endorsed upon such instru

ment.

Notarial copies of instruments executed in Lower Canada, the originals whereof are filed in any Notarial Office, are treated as originals for the purposes of regis

tration.

Sheriff's deeds for taxes must be registered within 18 months after the sale by the Sheriff, and deeds of lands sold under process of a court, must be registered within 6 months after the sale, to preserve priority against subsequent purchasers in good faith, who have registered their deeds.

Any person entitled to receive the money due upon a mortgage, may execute a certificate discharging such mortgage, and such certificate, when registered is valid. and effectual in law as a release of such mortgage and a reconveyance of the estate to the mortgagor and those claiming under him.

After a grant from the Crown and patent issued, any one neglecting to register any instrument to him affecting such land, shall lose his priority as against a subsequent purchaser or mortgagee for value, who shall have registered, and this extends to equitable mortgages and all other liens. But a lease for a less term than seven years, accompanied by possession, need not be registered.

Plans of sub-divisions of lands are required to be lodged with the registrar under a penalty of $20 a month for refusing to register the same.

By this statute the appointment of an officer, called the Inspector of Registry Offices is authorised, whose duty it is to inspect all Registry Offices and the books, documents, and papers therein, and to preserve a general uniformity of practice the want of which has been so long felt by conveyancers. He is in fact to have a general supervision of the Registry Offices, and when necessary, to enforce the provisions of the law in respect to the same. Hitherto, inconvenience has often been felt by registrars refusing personal inspection of the books of the office. This statute expressly declares the right of every one upon payment of the proper fees to inspect the books for themselves and the facilities for searching titles are very much increased by its provisions.

CLAIMS TO LANDS IN UPPER CANADA FOR WHICH NO PATENTS HAVE ISSUED.

The Heir and Devisee Commission under cap. 25 of the Rev. Stat. of Ontario, is composed of the Judges of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity, and such other persons as may be appointed by commission under the great seal. The duties of the commissioners are to ascertain, determine, and declare in all cases brought before them, who is the party to whom the patent ought to issue for the lands to which such claims relate, whether made by heirs, devisees, or assignees, of the original nominee of the crown.

Every assignee of a crown land claim should give notice thereof to the proper crown lands agent as soon as possible after the assignment to him.

PROPERTY OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.

By Revised Statutes (Ontario,) cap. 216, religious societies and congregations of Christians in Ontario can hold lands for the site of a church, chapel, meeting-house,

burial ground, or residence of a minister, book store, printing or publishing office, or for any other religious or congregational purpose whatsoever. They must appoint trustees to hold and possess the lands and to maintain and defend actions.

A deed to such trustees must be registered within 12 months after its execution. The trustees may mortgage lands so held, to secure a debt contracted for the building, repairing, extending or improving the church, etc., or for the purchase of the land, or may borrow money on mortgage for such purposes.

Grantees in trust named in any patent, or trustees appointed in manner prescribed in the letters patent may lease lands for 21 years, and renew such lease at the expiration of any or every term of 21 years, and may bind their successors to pay for improvements on a valuation. The consent of the congregation to such leases must be signified by the votes of a majority of the members present at a meeting duly called for the purpose. Trustees may sue or distrain for rent in arrear as ordinary landlords. When lands held by trustees become unnecessary to be retained for the use of a congregation or religious body, and it is deemed advantageous to sell the land, the trustees after giving public notice of an intended sale for four successive weeks in a weekly paper may sell the land by public auction or private sale, and before the deed is executed the congregation must be duly notified thereof, and their assent, or the sanction of the Judge of the County Court of the County in which the lands lie must be obtained to the sale.

We have thus endeavoured to call attention to the more practical portions of the law relating to real property in Ontario. For more accurate knowledge reference

must be had to the statutes named. He who relies on this introduction as an index directing him to fuller sources of knowledge will be benefitted, while he who is content to rely upon this short treatise as containing all that is necessary to know on the subject, will be most unwisely negligent.