THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

mit to you herewith, in order that it be distri-
buted among the Registrars of Shipping, for
their guidance, in the Colony under your Go-
vernment, a Supplemental Instruction, amend-
ing paragraph 68 of the General Instructions
to Registrars, with regard to transactions in
which a Certificate of Sale is outstanding.

I have, &c., &c., NEWCASTLE.

Governor Gore Browne, C.B.
&c., &c., &c.

INSTRUCTIONS TO REGISTRARS OF
SHIPPING.

Amendment of Paragraph 68.

Paragraph 68, after pointing out the mode
in which a Certificate of Sale may be issued,
states, that "no further transaction can take
place in respect of the ship while the Certificate
is outstanding." The instructions must in
future be read as if these words were struck
out.

It appears from an opinion given by the law
officers of the Crown, that the issue of a cer-
tificate whether of sale or mortgage, does not
prevent subsequent dealings with the ship by
a prior mortgagee, or even by an owner, so long
as no title to the ship is completed under the
certificate.

No injustice can arise from the fact that va-
rious titles may thus appear on the Register at
the same time, since every person who advances
money or purchases upon the strength of a title
which is liable to be defeated by a prior incum-
brance, must in all cases have, at the time he
advances money or purchases, full notice of the
prior incumbrance, and ought therefore to be
fully away that his own title is liable to be de-
feated.

In regard to unmortgaged vessels, no harm
can arise from permitting the record of bills of
sale and mortgages, while a Certificate of Sale
is outstanding, as it appears quite clear from
the terms of "The Merchant Shipping Act,
1854," Section 81, Clauses 5, 6, and 8, that
the purchaser under the certificate would, ac-
cording to the strictest construction of the
words of the Act, and almost without reference
to its general policy, have a clear priority.
When, however, the general policy is considered
all doubts must be set at rest.

The Merchant Shipping Act does not give
an idefeasible title to the ship to the person
whose name appears on the Register as against
claims of which he has full notice. What it
does give to the person whose name is on the
Register, is, the power of conveying an inde-
feasible title to a bonâ fide innocent purchaser
or mortgagee. A purchaser or mortgagee who
has, by the Register itself, notice of a prior
claim, or possibility of claim, cannot as
against that claim, be a bonâ fide innocent
Purchaser, and cannot therefore get an inde-
feasible title.

It is, however, obvious that persons who pur-
chase or advance money under such circum-
stances are liable to very great risk, and the

267

Registrars should make their business to
point out the risk.

In the event of the sale of a ship by the
owner at the Port of Registry whilst a certi-
ficate of sale or mortgage is outstanding, if re-
gistry anew, or transfer of registry to another
Port be demanded by the purchaser, care should
be taken by the Registrar that the outstanding
certificates be produced, until such certificates
are duly returned, or satisfactory proof of their
loss given under the conditions of the 82nd
Section of "The Merchant Shipping Act,
1854."

A note to the following effect will be printed
on all future certificates of sale or mortgages,
and a similar note should also be written by the
Registrar on the existing forms on which no
such note is printed.

Nota Bene.

"Persons who purchase under a cer-
tificate of sale or who advance money under a
certificate of mortgage, when there is a pre-
vious mortgage, or a previous certificate
of sale, or of mortgage endorsed on the certificate
under which they purchase, do so at their own
risk.

"Their title is liable to be defeated by the
persons claiming under the incumbrance so
endorsed."

Land Claims' Office,
New Plymouth, 19th November, 1859.

I, WILLIAM HALSE, a Commissioner
duly appointed by virtue of the Ordinance
No. 15, Session xi, of the Legislative Council
of the Islands of New Zealand, to hear and
decide Claims to Land by persons claiming Title
thereto from, through, or under the New Zealand
Company, report that the claims of the persons
whose names appear in the Schedule hereunder
having been duly referred to me for investiga-
tion, I do hereby decide that the said persons
are respectively entitled to the Crown Grants
set against their Names in the said Schedule.
W. HALSE,
Commissioner.

SCHEDULE.