Land Titles Protection Act 1908
Land Titles Protection Act 1908
Land Titles Protection Act 1908
Public Act |
1908 No 98 |
|
Date of assent |
4 August 1908 |
|
Contents
An Act to consolidate certain Enactments of the General Assembly relating to the Protection of Land Titles from Frivolous Attacks in certain Cases.
Preamble.
WHEREAS several actions by Natives calling in question, after a lapse of at least thirty years, certain orders of the Native Land Court made under the provisions of “The Native Lands Act, 1865,”
and the Crown grants and other instruments of title issued in pursuance thereof, have within recent years been taken in the Supreme Court: And whereas the said actions have been dismissed and the parties have been cast in heavy costs and expenses: And whereas, through the death or retirement of Judges of the Native Land Court and other responsible officers of the public service who could give official evidence, the defence of similar actions might be a matter of very great difficulty, if not an impossibility: And whereas considerable alarm has been caused amongst the European landholders at such attacks upon their titles, and it is expedient that reasonable protection should be afforded to the holders of such titles:
Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Short Title.
(1.)
The Short Title of this Act is “The Land Titles Protection Act, 1908.”
Enactments consolidated
(2.)
This Act is a consolidation of the enactments mentioned in the Schedule hereto, and with respect to those enactments the following provisions shall apply:—
Savings.
(a.)
All Orders in Council and generally all acts of authority which originated under any of the said enactments, and are subsisting or in force on the coming into operation of this Act, shall enure for the purposes of this Act as fully and effectually as if they had originated under the corresponding provisions of this Act, and accordingly shall, where necessary, be deemed to have so originated.
(b.)
All matters and proceedings commenced under any such enactment, and pending or in progress on the coming into operation of this Act, may be continued, completed, and enforced under this Act.
2 Consent of Governor in Council necessary to proceedings to question title issued.
1902, No. 37. sec.2
(1.)
In the case of Native land or land acquired from Natives, the validity of any order of the Native Land Court, Crown grant, or other instrument of title purporting to have been issued under the authority of law which has subsisted for not less than ten years prior to the third day of October, one thousand nine hundred and two (being the date of the coming into operation of “The Land Titles Protection Act, 1902”
), shall not be called in question in any Court, or be the subject of any order of the Chief Judge of the Native Land Court under section thirty-nine of “The Native Land Court Act, 1894,”
unless with the consent of the Governor in Council first had and obtained; and in the absence of such consent this Act shall be an absolute bar to the initiation of any proceedings in any Court calling in question the validity of any such order, Crown grant, or instrument of title, or the jurisdiction of the Native Land Court to make any such order, or the power of the Governor to make and issue any such Crown grant.
(2.)
The Governor in Council may, after due inquiry in such manner as he thinks fit, give such consent as aforesaid, with or without conditions as to security for costs, if he is satisfied that a prima facie case has been established, and that it would be inexpedient to dispose of it by remedial legislation or any other procedure which would obviate litigation.
Consent, when to take effect.
(3.)
No such consent shall take effect until after the expiration of fourteen days from the date of publication thereof in the Gazette and Kahiti.
3 Actions prior to 30th June, 1902.
Ibid, sec. 3
Nothing herein shall be deemed to apply to any action commenced prior to the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred and two.
4 Application to deal with title to be laid before Parliament.
Ibid, sec. 4
Every application made under this Act to call in question any title shall, with the decision come to by the Governor in Council, be laid before Parliament within ten days after the commencement of the next ensuing session of Parliament.
Schedule Enactments consolidated.
1902, No. 37.—“The Land Titles Protection Act, 1902.”