Land Transfers In

Tahiti.

Important New Law.

From Our Own Correapondent.

Papeete, Sept. 7.

AN important Ministerial decree, which will have a far-reaching effect on present land titles, and regulate all future transactions in real estate within the French Establish ments of Oceania, was promulgated in the Official Journal of the Colony on August 16.

This enactment provides that all future transfers of land, whether by sale, testament, or donation, must have the sanction of His Excellency, the Governor, and leases of ten years or longer are subject to the same con dition. The Governor may deliver the authorisation solicited, or refuse it, without being required, in the latter event, to furnish any explanation of the reasons determining his refusal.

Specal conditions apply to transfers, where such would cause property to pass into the hands of persons who have no legal domicile in the Colony.

In such cases, the Governor may, if he considers it necessary, exercise, in the name of the Colony, the right of pre emption with respect to the property in question upon payment for same according to a valuation arrived at by experts. Of these experts, one will be chosen by the interested parties and one by the Governor; failing agree ment between these two as to pric of the property, the matter will be submitted for arbitration to a third expert named by the President of the Superior Court.

The Decree is not made applicable to contracts and mortgages entered into prior to its promulgation except insofar as the right of pre-emption is concerned which is retro-active.

Article 8 of the Decree stipulates that public auctions of real estate, which are held from time to time as the result of judicial proceedings at the Civil Court of Papeete, may not be held without the authorisation of the Governor, to whom intending bidders must apply at least 15 days before the sale, when permission to bid will be granted or refused at the Governor’s discretion.

Special penalties, as well as the pro visions of Article 463 of the penal Code, are made applicable to infrac tions of the Decree.

From the comments heard around Papeete, it seems evident that the majority of the population has re ceived the measure favourably, real ising that it may be administered to operate as a check upon the acquisition of land by undesirables, and as a safe guard to native interests; it may also have the beneficial effect of placing the mortgage business on a sounder and more satisfactory basis than has been possible hitherto.

Mr. W. Grose did not seek election to the position of general president of the New Guinea Planters’ Association, which held its annual meeting in Rabaul in July, and has been succeeded by Mr.

D. Mullaly.