Registrar of Deeds ment, after pointing oat that the chief purpose of the lease was- agriculture and habitation, and that if the lessee were, allowed to remove the day he would be violating the ohief purpose of the con tract, said: “ It cannot be denied that Xxxxxxxxxx, Xxxxxx, and other authorities quoted by Mr. Wends, classify clay under metals or mine rals, but it does not follow from this that in the case before us we have to attach the same meaning to the word. Xxxx, which mostly appears in the soil, is not considered in South Africa as metal or mineral It has been very correctly remarked that it is not customary with us to speak of prospecting and digging for clay." The learned Chiif Just ic k then referred to a letter which indicated'some doubt in the mind of the lessee as to his right to dig, and after observing that the existence of such a doubt was of some value in determining the intention of the parties, proceeded: “ That intention must be deduced by reading the contract as a whole; we must not give a scientific or extraordinary meaning to the wend “mineral” and in that way include clay under it when the purpose of the contract and the customs of our people do not allow this, no matter what the law or custom of the different countries of Europe may be. It is accordingly not per se decisive that in those other countries clay is considered as metal or rather ae mineral The words in the contract must be explained in accordance with the usual and common meaning ae in use in this country, although the scientific may be different.” Apart from the finding that clay is not a mineral in the popular sense of the word in this country, the only rule of general application to be extracted from this case seems to me to be that where an amlxguous word is used you must collect from a consideration of the whole instrument the sense in which the parties intended to use it The meaning of the word “ mineral ” is therefore a question of intention to be ascertained from an examination of the instrument in which it is used. The rule thus applied by the learned Chie f Just ic e to an instru ment inter partes applies (with the substitution of the intention of the legislature for the intention of the parties) to the interpretation of a statute. The rule in the case of statutes is stated in Xxxxxxx on The Interpretation of Statutes (p. 74) as follows: “The words of a statute are to be understood in the sense in which they beet harmonise with the subject of the enactment and the object w...
Registrar of Deeds. That section reads as follows: “ No grant of right to. minerals, which are supposed to be present or are ac;ually present on any farm, shall be lawful unless a notarial deed has been drawn np to that effect, and dnly registered at the office of the Registrar of Deeds.” It then goes on to deal with the various forms of grant, and imposes a transfer dnty in respect of each of these forms.
Registrar of Deeds. 481 ensure the registration of such grants—a matter of the utmost importance in this couutry where such xxxxxx.xxxx with mineral substances of great value, but of no importance in regard to clay or sand. And from the wording of sec. 16 itself I come to the con clusion, quite apart from the decision in Xxxxxxx'x ease, that the expression “ minerals ” was not intended to include clay or sand. The law allows simple licences to be granted by competent authority for digging clay and sand in town lands. Armed with this licence the holder may proceed to dig upon any vacant space within the area allotted. To have that space surveyed, a notarial document drawn up and duly registered, would be impracticable,. and has never been required. Yet the conse quence of interpreting the word “ mineral" in its widest sense would be that every person who obtained the right to make bricks would have to have his contract notarially executed and registered, and would also have to have the ground surveyed and a diagram filed. Looking at all the circumstances, I cannot think that such was the intention of the legislature.
Registrar of Deeds. Office The registrar of deeds is responsible for recording deeds, liens, mortgages, and other instruments of land ownership and other legally significant documents. Persons and Companies mail or bring documents to the Registrar of Deeds office for recording. The current system consists of a Point of Sale (POS) component and a Data Entry component, both written in FoxPro (DOS). The proposed system will replace these FoxPro based applications and the underlying database. Also, the system will route electronic copies to other departments, such as the County Assessor's office, eliminating the routing of many paper copies. Descriptions of how employees will interact with the system during various stages of the process follow.
