Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXYIII.





NEW YOKE, SATUEDAT, AUGUST 13, 1881.





No. 700





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:
ONE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00

Communications should be addressed to

€. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager.





Mr. John Thompson, of the Chase Nation¬
al Bank, read a very sensible paper at the
Convention of Bankers at Niagara. He does
not believe a panic is due for two years to
conie, but he thinks it inevitable some time
during 1884 or 1885. The great danger of
the times, in hi-^ opinion, is the vast mass of
securities that have been put upon the mar¬
ket. They will absorb a great deal of money
and then when gold flows to Europe, as
sometime it must, our vast credit system
will become paralyzed and a panic precipi¬
tated. Well, at any rate, we shall have two
years' grace.





It is all very well for Street Superintend¬
ent Coleman to issue an order to contract¬
ors not to put their building rubbish in the
streets, nor impede wagons or foot passen¬
gers. But New York is a growing city and a
great deal of building is going on, and a
generous policy should be pursued to those
who are adding to the wealth and import¬
ance of the metropolis. One of the penal¬
ties New York pays for its prosperity is the
building which is inevitable, especially in
very prosperous times. There is a necessary
partial interruption of travel wherever a
large building operation is going on.





HOW THINGS LOOK.

The situation is very mixed. The " street"
is bearish and is talking down prices, and it
is believed the market is largely oversold.
One or two bulls could twist the shorts if
they made a dash at the market. Yet the
outlook is not promising. It is evident that
there is trouble between William H. Van¬
derbilt and Robert Garrett, and that the war
of rates is consequently not vet at an end.
It is a noticeable fact, by the way, that
Baltimore, of all the cities in the Union, is
the one that, by her exchanges, has been
doing less business than formerly. The New
York Central seems to have drawn traffic
away from the Monumental City.

It is now admitted that crops are poor
compared with last year. There is less
wheat by 80,000,000 bushels, and there is
great doubt about the corn crop. It wUl
certainly be 30 per cent, less than the crop
of last year. As an offset, it seems to be
certain that the harvests of Germany,
France and Great Britain wiU be somewhat
less than the average. The only good crop of
wheat is in Russia. As a nation, we are not
so badly off, for our grain crop may sell for
as much money as did the crop of last year.
But this would not help the railroads. The
farmers would be as well ofl, at least such
of  them as have grain,  but the railroad

arnings would necessarily diminish.





A great deal hinges upon the fact as to
whether we wiU have gold shipments this
fall. Exchange is weak, almost down to the
gold shipping point, and, indeed, some
$500,000 is on the way, upon the belief, by
the operators, that there will be a profit by
the time the vessel arrives here. If there
should be gold shipments, there may be a
sharp upward turn in the market, at least a
bull market has always followed the addition
of foreign gold to our already large accu¬
mulated stores of the precious metals.

It is to be feared that the era of cheap
prices for raw material is over'. Much of
the prosperity of the last two years was due
to the lower price of grain, cotton and pro¬
visions, as well as iron and the other metals.
But the diminished production of grain has
led to a large enliancement in values, while
the increase in the price of labor has added
largely to the cost of production, which is
shown by the market quotations for raw
material. Cotton alone, of all the staple
products, is likely to rule at low figures, be¬
cause of the immense production.

Of course, sfime time this fall there will
be a sharp rally in the stock market and
stocks will reach much higher figures. If
gold is imported in any reasonably large
quantity, there is every evidence that it will
cause a buoyant market. But the proba¬
bilities are that our gold importation will
not amount to much, and that our imports
will be largely in excess of our exports.

In the meantime, the general business of
the country promises to be very good. Man¬
ufacturing will be active, prices well sus¬
tained, and land will rise steadily in value.





OUR FAULTY LAND LAWS.

A representative of The Record while on a
visit to Long Beach to escape the heat of New
York, fell in with a noted real estate investor, a
gentleman belonging to an old New York family,
and who has been a buyer and seller of i-ealty for
the last thirty-five years. This gentleman's at¬
tention was called to an article in a Sunday
paper, on the land laws of Australia. The read¬
ers of The Record are somewhat familiar with
these laws, by the report we gave of Dwight H.
Olmsted's lecture on the subject and subsequent
interviews with him.

"What do you think of the wisdom of the
Australian land laws and feasibility of their re-
enactment here ?" asked the writer.

" O, our laws are sadly behind the age. We
are at the mercy of every incompetent or care¬
less searcher of titles. As for myself, I decline
to give a warrantee deed."

This surprised the writer as he knew the gen¬
tleman was a principal in very many transac¬
tions.

" Yes," continued the gentleman, " I follow the

example of-----(here he mentioned the names of

several well-known operators) who hire people to
give warrantee deeds. It is generally some clerk
in a lawyer's office who is willing to take the re¬
sponsibility for a fee of say ?20. Of coui-se his
warrantee deed is not good for anything, for he
does not possess a cent in the world; i»ut the title
is as good as any other title, and depends upon its
past history. But I, personally, will not be re¬
sponsible for titles which have passed through the
hands of htindreds of lawyers, in which there i-





always a Uability of an error in the description,
or of an heir turning up whose claims have been
forgotten or overlooked."

" There are, of course, many hardships under
the present law ?"

"Well, I should say so. Some years ago a
man named B. sold a house in G-old street to a
person named M., and he resold to G. A dozen
years after B's death a woman turned up, claim¬
ing to be his wife. She had no marriage certifi¬
cate, and the clergyman who performed the
ceremony could not be found. But the jury, as
in all such cases, brought in a verdict for the
woman. The case is still undecided, but in all
hinnan probability, M., who purchased fi'om B.
in good faith, will be forced to give this woman
a sum equivalent to her dower right. I recently
bought a piece of property which had been sold
and resold for fifty years past, the title having
been scrutinized by the most careful lawyers in
New York. But m.y lawyer discovered that in
the title which was given in 1831, an error was
made in the description, the word northeast
being used instead of southeast. Luckily for
me tha heir, a woman hving in Florida, was dis¬
covered and for $100 the matter was made all
right. But see the peril I ran. Then, look at
another case, John Smith No. 1 sells 3.50
parcels of land in fee ; his son subsequently be¬
comes a bankrupt and assigns his property to a
receiver. A sharp lawyer looking over the titles
discovers that Smith No. 1 had only a life interest
in the estate, and that the title had passed to
Smith No. 2. He therefore for a trifle purchases
the right to the fee from the bankruptcy assignee
of Smith No. 2. Smith No. 3 is at present an al¬
derman, an excellent gentleman; but all the pur¬
chasers from Smith No. 1, who have since built
houses and made improvements, find that their
titles are probably worthless. In any event they
cannot sell until the case is settled or a compro¬
mise is made. While I have used the name of
Smith, this is a real case well known to the
courts. These are some of the workings of
our land laws. Now, the Australian system
was designed by Sir R. Torrens, who ought to be
regarded as one of the benefactors of mankind.
The paper in my hand gives a description of the
system as follows :

The Torrens system of conveyancing is the
simplest in the world. When a parcel of land
has once been registered—a step which is not
taken until a careful inquiry has been made by
the official searchers—the title is fixed forever in
the registered owner and his grantees. If any
mistake has been made, the parties injured must
look for a remedy in a suit for damages against
the Government, and cannot ask for a specific re¬
covery of the land. Every registration is made
in duplicate, and the owner's evidence of title is
the record on the official books and the duplicate
thereof which he has in his pocket. If an owner
desires to sell or mortgage his land, thus regis¬
tered, he has merely to note his wish by an en¬
dorsement on his certificate, which, when taken
to the nearest branch of the registration ofiice,
will be repeated on the record. There is no draw¬
ing of deeds, no searching of titles, but land is
sold encumbered, or used as collateral security
precisely as if the slip of paper which serves as
a muniment of title were a certificate of bank
stock.

Sir Robert Torrens explains that entry in tha
record is the essential act which gives validity to
all real estate transactions in Austraha. The
memorandum certifying? registration endorsed
upon the certificate renders it conclusive evidence
of title in all courts of law and equity. This cer¬
tificate must, as we have said, on the occasion of
any dealing, be delivered up to the Registrar or
to one of his deputies, in order that an official en¬
dorsement may be made thereon, notifying the
existence of such transaction, corresponding with
the memorial thereof in the record. Registered
interests take priority among themselves accord¬
ing to the date of registration, and over all un-
^ registered interests whatsoever.   Under this sys-