§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSY (Limerick, W.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if he can state the number of verified personal searches made for local registration of title purposes under The Local Registration of Title (Ireland) Act, 1891, and also the number of common searches ordered in the Registry of Deeds, in Ireland for the same purpose since the date of the order of 14th December, 1892 to 1st March, 1903.
(Answered by Mr. Atkinson.) Information on these points is not officially recorded, and to ascertain it would entail an expenditure of time and labour which would be wholly incommensurate with results. I cannot, there fore, undertake to impose on the Department the preparation of a Return on the subject.
§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSYTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if he will explain why the order of the right hon. Judge Monroe, dated 14th December, 1892, giving solicitors in Ireland the option of having personal unofficial searches made in lieu of official common searches for local registration of title purposes under the Act of 1891 has been disregarded by the Registrar of Titles in Ireland: and if he will take steps to give solicitors the facilities hitherto enjoyed under this order.
(Answered by Mr. Atkinson.) The hon. Member has been misinformed. The order of December, 1892, did not confer on solicitors any such right of option. It vested in the Registrar of Titles a discretion to accept verified searches in lieu of common searches by persons accustomed to make personal searches, but was in no way binding upon the Registrar. Common searches made by trained officials are as expeditious as, and certainly more reliable than, unofficial searches made in many cases by persons, 808 including boys, whose qualifications for searching the Registrar has no means of judging. Upon the consolidation in 1896 of the rules under the Registration of Title Act the original rule as to common searches was restored, and no reference was made to the order of December, 1892. That order was framed to meet an exceptional state of circumstances of temporary duration, which have since disappeared.