to attend and prove their rights, or they will be adjudicated without such attendance, besides any other matter deemed important by the commissioner. Such notice may be published in any case in the discretion of the commissioner. No summons shall be set aside or dismissed because of any technical informality, provided it shall set forth the time and place of hearing and the nature of the right claimed in terms sufficiently clear for the apprisal of all parties interested. Parties may appear personally or by properly authorized attorney.

§ 1823. At the time set for hearing, service of summons or publication of notice having been proved, the commissioner shall hear the evidence offered relative to the right in controversy, and shall, as far as possible, ascertain the rights of absent parties, not served where notice as herein provided shall have been published. He may, if deemed desirable or conclusive to the rendering of a correct decision, visit the locality where the controversy arose. He shall give such decision as may in each particular case appear to be in conformity with vested rights, and shall be just and equitable between the parties. The decision shall state expressly the findings of fact on the evidence, and shall in cases of right of way clearly indicate the location (if possible) and nature of the way. If on a water right, it shall state the proportion or time for use and any other things necessary to the right. It may also regulate the methods by which water may be obtained and by which its supply can be controlled. All of the testimony and the decision shall be recorded in books of record to be kept and preserved by the commissioner. The said books, when filled, shall be deposited with the clerks of the respective courts. The decisions of the several commissioners shall be final and binding upon all parties except those who may be absent from the territory without a legal representative in this territory during the whole time of the pendency of such suit, subject to the right of appeal.

§ 1824. There may be taxed as costs in cases arising hereunder, besides the usual statutory costs, as allowed in the district courts for service, summons, oaths, and otherwise, the fees of the commissioner, six dollars a day for each day's hearing and his reasonable actual expenses in visiting the locality, and not over twenty cents a folio for copies of the evidence and decision either on appeal or as furnished to any party. The costs may, in the discretion of the commissioner, be divided or taxed to the losing party. In case of appeal the final award as to costs shall abide the decision of the court.

§ 1825. Any party aggrieved by the decision of the commissioner may appeal therefrom to the court within ten days from the rendition of the decision, and within said period shall pay all costs accrued and for certificate and record on appeal, and shall deposit with the commissioner a good and sufficient bond to the clerk of the court, in the sum of one hundred dollars, conditioned for the payment of costs further to accrue in case of defeat. In case of appeal the commissioner shall promptly transmit to the clerk of the court a copy of the record, together with any exhibits filed, the bond for costs, and all costs not strictly retainable by him or actually disbursed. The court may permit the introduction of new evidence which could not with due diligence have been obtained before, and its decision shall be final and binding except as aforesaid.

§ 1826. The commissioner shall have power to administer oaths, to punish contempts, to grant adjournments, to subpoena and compel the attendance of witnesses, to issue execution for costs, to enforce a specific performance of judgment, and generally to exercise the same

authority in regard to their special jurisdiction as is by law conferred upon district magistrates.

§ 1827. Nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed to interfere with the several laws authorizing the superintendent of public works to take possession of land or water for the benefit of the Honolulu Water Works.

[§§ 1828-1832.]

NOTE TO CHAPTER 117.

SS 1820-1827 are S. L. 1888, ch. 26.

Cases in Hawaiian Reports: Davis v. Afong, 5 Haw.. 217; R. v. Aiona, 5 Haw., 144; Kahai v. Rose, 8 Haw., 272; Lishman v. Perry, 7 Haw., 267; Lonoaea v. Wailuku Co., 9 Haw., 652; Chun Lai v. Mang Yong, 10 Haw., 133; Horner v. Kumuliilii, 10 Haw.. 174; Wong Leong v. Irwin, 10 Haw., 265; Kaleiopu v. Booth, 10 Haw., 453; Wailuku Co. v. Cornwell, 10 Haw., 476.

CHAPTER 118.

REGISTRAR OF CONVEYANCES.

§ 1833. There shall be a bureau in the department of the interior to be called the bureau of conveyances; and the governor shall appoint, upon the nomination of the treasurer, some suitable person to superintend said bureau, under the direction of the treasurer, who shall be styled the "registrar of conveyances" and hold his office at the pleasure of the governor.

§ 1834. Said registrar shall take an oath faithfully to discharge the duties of his office, and he shall give to the treasurer, for the benefit of the public, a bond in the penalty of at least one thousand dollars, conditioned to answer to any party aggrieved, upon assignment thereof, for any damages, losses, or injuries sustained by reason of his negligence, carelessness, or misconduct in office, or by reason of false certificates of search or encumbrance by him at any time made or given to the detriment of the party prosecuting.

§ 1835. The said registrar shall be entitled to demand and receive the following fees, viz:

1. For the registry of any deed, lease, mortgage, or other instrument required by law to be recorded or presented for record, fifty cents for one hundred words.

2. For taking any acknowledgment preparatory to registry, one dollar for each party signing.

3. For every copy of any instrument recorded in this office, authenticated by his seal of office, fifty cents for one hundred words.

4. For searching the records and giving the certificate required by law, twenty-five cents for each year searched.

Such fees shall be paid into the public treasury weekly, and a monthly account thereof shall be rendered by the said registrar to the treasurer.

The registrar of conveyances shall receive such salary as may be appropriated by the legislature.

§ 1836. The said registrar shall, under the direction of the treasurer, appoint a deputy, for whose official acts he shall be responsible, and whose appointment he shall cause to be announced in the government gazette. It shall be the duty of such deputy to act as registrar of conveyances during the absence of the registrar, or in case of a vacancy in that office.

§ 1837. The said registrar may, under the direction of the treasurer, appoint suitable persons throughout the Territory as agents for taking

and certifying the acknowledgment of instruments to be recorded in his office.

§ 1838. It shall not be lawful to record any conveyance or other instrument required by law to be stamped, unless the same shall have been previously stamped as provided in section 927.

§ 1839. To entitle any conveyance or other instrument to be recorded, it shall be acknowledged by the party or parties executing the same before the registrar of conveyances, or his agent, or some judge of a court of record, or notary public of this Territory, or before some notary public or judge of a court of record in any foreign country. But if any party to an instrument executed within this Territory shall die or depart from the Territory without having acknowledged his deed, or shall refuse to acknowledge it, the deed may be entered of record on proof of its execution by a subscribing witness thereto, before any judge of a court of record of this Territory. If all the subscribing witnesses to such conveyance or other instrument shall be dead or out of the Territory, the same may be proved before any court of record of this Territory, by proving the handwriting of the grantor and any subscribing witness.

IDENTIFICATION OF PERSONS OFFERING ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO INSTRUMENTS.

§ 1840. No acknowledgment of any conveyance or other instrument whereby any real estate is conveyed or may be affected shall be taken, unless the person offering to make such acknowledgment shall be personally known to the officer taking the same to be the person whose name is subscribed to such conveyance or instrument as a party thereto, or shall be proved to be such by the oath or affirmation of a credible witness known to the officer.

§ 1841. The certificate of such acknowledgment shall state the fact of acknowledgment and that the person making the same was personally known to the officer granting the certificate to be the person whose name is subscribed to the instrument as a party thereto, or was proved to be such by the oath or affirmation of a credible witness known to the officer, whose name shall be inserted in the certificate. § 1842. Such certificate shall be substantially in the following form, to wit:

A. D.

On this day of personally appeared before me A. B., known to me to be the person described in and who executed the foregoing instrument, who acknowledged to me that he executed the same freely and voluntarily and for the uses and purposes therein set forth.

§ 1843. When the person offering the acknowledgment is unknown to the officer taking the acknowledgment, the certificate shall be substantially in the following form, to wit:

TERRITORY OF HAWAII,

Island of

SS:

, A. D.

On this -day of -, personally appeared before me A. B., satisfactorily proved to me to be the person described in and who executed the within instrument, by the oath of C. D., a credible witness for that purpose, to me known and by me duly sworn,

and he, the said A. B., acknowledged that he executed the same freely and voluntarily for the uses and purposes therein set forth.

1844. No certificate of acknowledgment contrary to the provisions of this chapter shall be valid in any court of this Territory, nor shall it be entitled to be recorded in the registry of public conveyances.

§ 1845. This chapter shall take effect and become a law from and after the date of its passage, but no certificate of acknowledgment executed before this chapter shall take effect shall in consequence of anything herein contained be deemed invalid.

Approved this 29th day of July, A. D. 1872.

§ 1846. It shall not be lawful to enter of record any release of dower in lands or other property, signed by an undivorced wife, without her previous acknowledgment to the registrar of conveyances, or one of his agents, or some officer authorized to receive such acknowledgment, apart from her husband, that she had signed such release without compulsion, fear, or constraint from her husband.

§ 1847. Every officer who shall take the acknowledgment or proof of any instrument shall endorse a certificate thereof, signed by himself, on the instrument, and in cases of proof give the names of the witnesses examined before him, their places of residence, and the substance of the evidence by them given.

§ 1848. Every conveyance or other instrument, stamped and acknowledged or proved, and certified in the manner herein before prescribed, by any of the officers before named, may be read in evidence without further proof thereof, and shall be entitled to be recorded.

§ 1849. The record of an instrument duly recorded, or a transcript thereof, duly certified, may also be read in evidence, with the like force and effect as the original instrument. Neither the certificate of acknowledgment, nor the proof of any instrument, shall be conclusive, but may be rebutted, and the force and effect thereof may be contested by any party affected thereby. If the party contesting the proof of an instrument shall make it appear that such proof was taken upon the oath of an interested or incompetent witness, neither such instrument nor the record thereof shall be received in evidence until established by other competent proof.

§ 1850. Every instrument entitled by law to be recorded shall be recorded in the order and as of the time when the same shall be delivered to the registrar for that purpose, and shall be considered as recorded from the time of such delivery.

§ 1851. It shall be the duty of the registrar of conveyances to make an entire liberal copy of all instruments required to be recorded in his office in books suitable for that purpose, which shall be provided by the treasurer, and at the foot of said copy certify its correspondence with the original, after which he shall certify upon the exterior, or endorse upon said recorded instrument, the date of its registry, the book in his office in which, and the page of said book at which, it was registered.

§ 1852. All deeds, leases for a term of more than one year, or other conveyances of real estate within this Territory shall be recorded in the office of the registrar of conveyances, and every such conveyance not so recorded shall be void as against any subsequent purchaser, in good faith and for a valuable consideration, not having actual notice of such conveyance, of the same real estate, or any portion thereof, whose conveyance shall be first duly recorded.

§ 1853. All mortgages of chattel property, indentures of appren

ticeship, articles of marriage settlement, powers of attorney for the transfer of real estate within this Territory, and agreements of adoption, shall, in order to their validity, be recorded in the office of the registrar of conveyances, in default of which no such instrument shall be binding to the detriment of third parties, or conclusive upon their rights and interests.

§ 1854. The registrar of conveyances shall, when applied to therefor, furnish an attested copy of any instrument or document recorded in his office, and he shall also give certificates of search or incumbrance, or of any fact appearing upon his records, upon being paid the fees herein before specified.

§ 1855. All records of instruments made in the office of the registrar of conveyances anterior to the tenth day of July, A. D. 1850, whether in the book required by law or otherwise, shall be deemed to have been duly recorded.

§ 1856. All conveyances of real and personal property made and executed anterior to the passage of this chapter, and all pledges of property, real or personal, executed anterior to the passage of this chapter, the conditions of which have not been fulfilled when this chapter is promulgated, shall be recorded in the office of the registrar of conveyances at the instance and expense of the grantee or mortgagee within ninety days after the promulgation thereof; and all such conveyances and pledges not so registered shall be void in law as against subsequent grantees and mortgagees of the same property, not having notice of the existence of such previous conveyances or pledges. April 27, 1846.

§ 1857. No instrument in which there are interlineations, erasures, or changes shall be recorded by the registrar of conveyances, unless the same are duly initialed and noted by the officer or officers taking the acknowledgment or acknowledgments to the same.

§ 1858. Each and every interlineation, erasure, or change made in any record in the office of the registrar of conveyances shall be initialed in the margin by the registrar or his deputy, and the interlineation, erasure, or change made shall be noted at the foot of the record in the handwriting and over the signature of the registrar or of his deputy.

NOTE TO CHAPTER 118.

?? 1833-1834 are C. L. ?? 1249-1250. 1835 is S. L. 1888, ch. 13. ?? 1836-1839 are C. L. 1252-1255. 1840-1845 are S. L. 1872, ch. 28, C. L.. p. 407. 1846-1855 are C. L. 1256–1265. 1856 is act 1846, C. L., p. 410. 1857-1858 are S. L. 1896, act 55.

Penalties for violations of this chapter, see Penal Laws, ?? 1340-1341.

Cases in Hawaiian Reports: Rives v. Makulu, 2 Haw., 166; Ellis v. White, 3 Haw., 205; Davis v. Spencer, 3 Haw., 274; Achi v. Kauwa, 5 Haw., 298; Hackfeld v. Akina, 6 Haw., 114; Lenehan v. Ákana, 6 Haw., 540; Black v. Castle, 7 Haw., 274; Cook v. Dayton, 8 Haw., 9.

CHAPTER 119.
NOTARIES PUBLIC.

§1859. There shall be appointed by the attorney-general one or more suitable persons in each of the judicial circuits of the Territory to be notaries public and to hold office as such notaries until removed by such attorney-general.

§1860. No person who is not a citizen of this Territory shall be eligi ble to the office of notary public; and every person appointed to that office shall, before entering thereon, take and subscribe an oath for the faithful discharge of his duties, which oath shall be filed in the department of the attorney-general.