Registers

New Guinea’S Lost Land

Ordinance to Meet Difficulty Caused by Jap Invasion

THE long-awaited Lands Title Ordinance of New Guinea is out at last, and soon will be in .general circulation.

The fact that most of the Mandated Territory’s land registers and records were lost in the war has caused enormous inconvenience, delay and loss —especially among those interests anxious to proceed with the erection, or re-erection, of buildings.

The prenaration of the Ordinance was a task of great complexity, demanding almost endless research, and the fact that it has required five years of preparation is not surprising.

In an article in the May issue of South Pacific (the journal of the Australian School of Pacific Administration), Mr.

Ewart Smith, who was a legal draftsman for the Department of External Territories and is now a solicitor in practice in Sydney, describes “The Restoration of Lost Titles to Land in New Guinea.” He

says that this is a novel piece of legis lation, “the circumstances of the complete loss and destruction of official land registers not having previously confronted the English-speaking world.”

Elaborate provisions are made for the “compilation of new Registers and Official Records relating to Land Mining and Forestry ... in place of those lost or destroyed during the Japanese In vasion ...” No attempt will be made to re-constitute the old German Grund buch, known as the Land Register.

Provision is made by elaborate mach inery for the incorporation, in the new organisation, of all that has been done in relation to land since the re-establishment of civil administration in 1945.

Much work by lawyers, and by the Administration, has to be done before the new machinery begins to operate smoothly —which probably will be in 1952. There is pro/ision, however, for dealing quickly with many urgent cases now before the Department of Lands.

Miss Harriett Baker, for many years a Methodist Missionary, died in Sydney in April. She was a daughter of the Rev.

Thomas Baker, who was killed by Fijians in the early mission days in that Group.