27 JULY 1929, Page 16

THE COST OF LITIGATION

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your article this week you allude to the costs of transfer of land as illustrating the costs of litigation. You say " to prove the title to a field, for instance, may cost up to ten times the value of the field, and take six months or more and the whole process must be gone through every time the field changes hands." (your italics).

In a letter which you were good enough to publish on October 17th, 1928, I pointed out that recent legislation (Land Registration Act, 1925) has rendered these costs entirely unnecessary. The adoption of the Act is, however, at present voluntary except in the case of London. The adoption rests with County Authorities and until the County Councils decide to take advantage of the Act the present situation which you justly describe as " disgraceful " will continue. Any of your readers who are interested in the subject will find it dealt with at some length in my pamphlet A New Domesday. (Simpkin, • Exmouth.