CROWN LANDS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

2.58 p.m.

The Prime Minister (Mr Lee Kuan Yew): Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Section 8 of the Land Titles Ordinance States that after the commencement of the Ordinance any person who has become entitled to land upon alienation by the Crown for an estate in fee simple or for an estate in perpetuity or for a leasehold term of not less than 21 years, can require the Collector of Land Revenue to furnish to the Registrar of Titles a certificate to that effect. The Registrar shall thereupon bring the land under the provisions of the Ordinance as therein directed, and shall deliver the triplicate certificate of title to the person entitled thereto. This complicated provision really means that the Collector of Land Revenue is under a duty to give a certificate to the Registrar of Land Titles who then registers it. But in the case of a statutory land grant issued under section 4 (1) of the Crown Lands Ordinance, the Collector of Land Revenue will be faced with this difficulty. Under section 2 of the Ordinance, a statutory land grant is defined as a grant in perpetuity, but in Schedule A, the Form provides for an estate in fee simple by virtue of the words of limitation on "his heirs and assigns for ever". This means, Mr Speaker, Sir, that the Collector will either have to follow the words of the Form, in which case it will be contrary to section 2; or if he goes according to section 2, he will not be going in accordance with the Form and Schedule A. This anomaly has existed since the original Crown Lands Ordinance was passed in 1886. I do not wish now, Mr Speaker, Sir, to labour the House with the intricacies of the difference between a grant and a fee simple and "his heirs and assigns for ever". But I can assure the House that there is a conveyancing difference in the terminology used. For the peace of mind of conveyancers and the Registrar of Land Titles, it is now proposed to remove this anomaly so that the Collector of Land Revenue can certify with certainty that the person to whom Crown land is being alienated is entitled to a grant in perpetuity.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committeed to a Committee of the whole Assembly.

Assembly immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. -[The Prime Minister].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.

3.02 p.m.