Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 49, no. 1256: April 9, 1892

Text version:

April 9, 1892 Record and Guide. 643 „\:'' n\ ESTAaUSHEDVyr Oî^'Oĩtí) lU HtAlEsrME BbUDi.NG ApC.rilTEC-TvJKE.KoUStHOLDDEOŨfViriOfi 5uilN'ES:> AfJDĨHEMEí^ Of GtNEIVL !^T£1\F^Ĩ PRICE, PER TEAR IIV ADTålVCE, SIX DOLLARS. l^blislied every Saturday. TBLEPUONK .... CORTt,ANDT 1370. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St. J. J. LINDSEY, Business Manager. "Entered at the Post-o^ce ai New York, N. T., as second-class maííer." VoL. XLIX. APRIL 9. 1892. No. 1,256 THE most favorable feature in the tinaiicial situation can be seen from ratlier thaii in Wall Street. It is the apparent end of the deoline in the prices of such fĩreat staples as cotton and iron. If ia these two and their allied industries buyers show little or no anxiety to make purcha^es, the sellers are making no more conces- sions to induce them to. This may involve some waiting before a ftnal opinion can be reached as to whether a new and bettercourse of things is to be seen, but meanwliile some satisfaction can be derived from the firmness of prices, low as thcy are. In the stock market matters are very little dltferent. The violence of the selling of a week ago induced a substantial reaction which, having spent itself, is succeeded by renewed duUness. The markec is essentially a professional one in which easy money will from time to time exert its influence, but until more interest is taken inquota- tions from the outside, permanent improvement is not possible. OWING to the low rates at which money has been lending in London, it might have been supposed that application for capital during the first quarter of this year would have been large, but such is not the case. Little inducement appears to have existed for the floating of new enterprises ; and the market was not par- ticularly hospitable to the opportunities that were offered. On the surface the falling off from the level of previous years is not apparent. The total applications were £30,943,(j00 during the flrst quarter of 1893 against £29,100,000 for the same period in 1891, £30,250,000 for the sa me period in 1890, and £56,000,000 for 1889. Analysis shows, however, that considerably more than half the total applications of this quarter liave been in respect of foreign government loans, and for these the applications to English inves- tors were more or less formal. The two items composing these foreign government applications were the German loan of over 14I4 millions sterling, and the Dutch loan of 41^ sterling, and for comparative purposes the amount of those two loans might almost be omitted from the calculation. If this were done the total applications for the quarter would be reduced to 12 millions sterling, as compared with 29 millions in the flrst quarter of 1891 and 301-^ millions in 1890. THE bill authorizing the Governor to appoint a commission of three experts to draft suitable building lan s for the various cities in this State, excepting the cities of New York and Brooklyn, passed the Senate í-evtral days ago, and is novv in the Assembly. The commissioners will be required to serve without pay, and to complete their work within one year. The sum of $5.000 is appro- priated by the bill for legal counsel, clerk hire, printing and other necessary expenses in the prosecution of the work. The building laws so formulated are to be in three classes : 1. For all cities exceeding 75,000 inhabitants, excepting the two cities already named. 2. For all cities exceeding 35,000, but not exceeding 75,000 inhabitants. 3. For all cities not exceeding 35,000 inhabi- tants. No permanent State commission, nor anything of that kind, is to be created. The building laws are to be so drawn that they can flt into the charters of the various cities and their enforcement is to be in the hands of the local authorities. /"^LASSIFIED building laws, uniform in their grades, are badly V-^ needed in this State. Other States are equally badly off. Building laws for all cities are the urgent need of the time, and when a proper code of such laws is adopted in New York State other States will doubtless adopt the same. The drafting of these laws will call for a high order of ability, and it seems too bad that the economical ideas of our legislators should require this service to be performed without compensation or not performed at all. For- tunately competent men stand ready to do the work, pay or no pay. For the past twelve years a few public-spirited men bave worked continuously on the New York City building law without any monied compensation whatever, and a similar gratuitous work of equal or greater importance will have to be undertaken for this State, in reality for the United States. For a number of years we bave advocated the appointment of a commission of builders and architects to formulate building laws for the small cities in this State, and we earnestly hope that the bill which is now for the third or fourth time before the Legislature wiU not fail to pass. •---------------------------------------------------------------------------------■ OWING to Mr. Atkinson's article in the Century and to the commissions of inquiry that have been appointed in one Eastern and several Western States, the subject of land transfer ■reform is now provoking a wider interest than at any time during the last ten years. In nearly every State, however, which has appointed these commissions those ' interested in the matter have jumped to the conclusion that the Australian system could be trans- planted to American soil with the same facility and success that hasattended the introduction of the Australian system of balloting. We have frequently pointed out the difiiculties of the transplalion of this system to the widely varying and peculiar conditions which obtain in the United [States. These objections are forcibly stated by Dwight H. Olmstead in a recent number of the Counsellor. In the flrst place Ihe Registrar of Deeds in the State of New York is a purely ministerial oflScer elected by the people and without any judicial power whatever. Were he to be invested with the same functious as a Registrar under the Torrens Act a change in our State constitution would be required, and such a change would meet many impediments, particularly becauseitwould be thefunc- tion of this new judge to settle important interests like titles with- out any appeal to a higher court. Secondly, in the City of New York there are upwards of 200,000 parcels of If.nd separately owned, and before the Torrens system could be put into operation, it would be necessary to have all these titles separately examined and adjudicated after hearing all parties intereited. The amount of work to be done would swamp the court. Another objection to the Torrens system is its imperfect and unscientiflc mode of indexings by the areas of the several ownerships instead of by definite areas flxed by statute for the purpose. The areas of such ownerships cannot for the most part be represented by diagrams. And where it is attempted so to represent them, the lots as owned, frequently overlap each other on the maps, and indexing under the area of one lot would not give notice of dealings with an adjoining parcel. Furthermore, there are 3,426 blocks on the land map of this city, and, as before stated, about 200,000 individual ' ownerships. By keeping the records of the titles under blocks only 3,426 headings are required for the entries on the indexes, but if the indexing were to be by ownerships, upwards of 200,000 different headings would be needed. Hence the system would be 'too cumbersome and unwieldy to be applied to such a large volume of business as is carried on in a Registrar's ofBce like that of New York. Mr. Olmstead also points out thac the methods of the Torrens Act are opposed tothe customs and habits of the people in dealing with land, and claims that the failures in England of Lord Westbury's Act of 1862, and Lord Cairn's Act of 1874, in which the essential principles of the Torrens sj'stem were embodied, justify the objections made by him to that system. IT must not, however, be supposed from the above that Mr. Olm- stead objects to^the Torrens system in its entirety, or that his purpose is any different from the purpose which the Australian methods are designed to accomplish. The aim of land transfer reform is the application of the principles so successfully applied to the transfer of personal propeny to the transfer.'of land ; but these principles contain no such devices as those of State guarantee of title and the consequent assurance f und. It is quite possible to obtain all the advantages of quick and cheap transfer without any ot the violent wrenching of present methods by the introduction of the peculiar features of the Torrens system. The process has been frequently described in these columns. In the flrst place we need a scientiflc and effective system of indexing whereby instru- ments affecting titles are made readily accessible. As soon aj this Í8 accomplished, land transfer is materially simplifled, but search- ing of titles still remains, and that means delay and expense. In order to do away with searching, the title must pass not on the giv- ing of a deed, but on the regislration of the transfer—the deed being merely power of attorney ''authorizing the Registrar to transfer in the books the ownership from the grantor to the grantee." Of course, the grantor could only oonvey the title to the parcel whicli he possesses, and in the begin- ning the grantee would still need to search the title of the grantor. But by means of a short statute of limitations the title flrst trans- ferred could be made absolute, and thereafter the register and the register only would be the evidence of title. Such is an outline of the process whereby the advantages of the Torrens system can be obtained, with none of its defccts. The interposition of a State guarantee is utterly unnecessary. Whatever secures the State in piakLng the guarantee will secure a grantee in accepting a title.