CLAUSE 9.—(Cesser of reservation of registration of title to land in Northern Ireland.) (Hansard, 27 June 1947)

§ Mr. Ede

I beg to move, in page 7 line 36, to leave out from "that," to "shall," in line 37, and to insert: no person becoming an officer of the Government of Northern Ireland by virtue of this subsection. I think it would be of advantage to the Committee, Mr. Beaumont, if we took this Amendment and the last two Amendments in my name on this Clause together, because this Amendment is anticipatory of what we propose in the two later Amendments The first five lines on page 9 of the Bill define the expression "the Registrar of Titles in Northern Ireland" as having the meaning assigned to it by Part III of the Government of Ireland (Supreme Court Matters, 849 etc.) Order, 1922, that is to say, such an officer of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland as may be appointed or assigned for discharges which affect Northern Ireland of the duties which, immediately before 15th December, 1921, were discharged by the Registrar of Titles. It has been discovered that it is no more necessary to define the Registrar of Titles in Northern Ireland than it would be to define the Chief Registrar in a Clause dealing with land registration in England. The over-meticulousness of the Clause has produced an apparent conflict in its provisions, because, paragraph (b)of Subsection (1) provides that the Registrar of Titles in Northern Ireland shall cease to be an officer of the Supreme Court. Accordingly, I ask the Committee to delete the unnecessary definition. We wish to remove any appearance of conflict by deleting, by the last Amendment, the words, "of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Northern Ireland."

The effect of making the last two Amendments is to prevent a future Registrar of Titles being able to argue that under Subsection (1) he could get remuneration not less than that which was paid to the existing Registrar on the date on which Clause 9 comes into operation. This must be avoided, for any future person appointed to the office of Registrar of Titles of Northern Ireland will be a civil servant of the Government of Northern Ireland. We preserve the right of the existing incumbent but, clearly, that preservation is personal to him, and when a new appointment has to be made, in the fullness of time, the Northern Ireland Government must be left with complete freedom as to remuneration, conditions of service, and so on, that they see fit to impose.