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any person belonging to any regular regiment of His Majesty's army who shall die within this Colony, unless it shall be shewn to the Supreme Court, or any Judge thereof, or to the Master that for the preservation or due administration and distribution of such property it is necessary or expedient that the same should be dealt with under the provisions of this Proclamation.

120. Every person to whom letters of administration or letters of confirmation shall be granted after the date of the taking effect of this Proclamation for the administration of the estate of any person who shall have died prior to the said date, shall be subject to and conform with the provisions of this Proclamation, and shall administer the estate in accordance therewith.

121. The Master is hereby empowered to appoint such and so many persons as to him shall seem fit to act as appraisers for the valuation of all estates and property, the appraisement of which shall become necessary for the purposes of his department, and to revoke any appointment so made; and every such appraiser shall, in respect of every such appraisement by him, be entitled to demand and receive a reasonable compensation to be assessed and taxed by the Master: Provided always that any person who shall act as such appraiser in any case in which he or any person whom he represented as agent, or any person to whom he is married or to whom he is related within the third degree of consanguinity or affinity has an interest in the estate to be appraised, shall be liable to forfeit the said compensation, and to pay a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

122. Every person who shall be appointed by the Master to act generally as an appraiser of such estates or properties as aforesaid, or to appraise any particular property or estate, shall take an oath before any Judge of the Supreme Court, Resident Magistrate or Justice of the Peace, that he will appraise all such estates or properties as may be submitted to his valuation, according to the just, proper and true valuation thereof to the best of his skill and knowledge, and shall transmit the said oath so taken by him and certified by the Judge, Magistrate, or Justice of the Peace before whom the same shall have been taken, to the Master.

123. The Master shall, and is hereby authorised and required to charge and to demand, receive, retain or recover in respect of the acts, matters and things done or caused to be done by him or in his office all such fees as are specified in the tariff contained in the Schedule hereunto annexed, marked E, and shall collect these fees by means of revenue stamps to be affixed to the respective documents: Provided that the fees for searches shall be affixed opposite to entries in a book kept for the purpose: And provided always that nothing herein contained shall repeal any law now in force requiring any stamp to be used for any purpose, or any stamp duty to be paid in respect of any proceeding, except in so far as any alteration shall be expressly made in the tariff of fees herein before mentioned.

Proc. No. 28 of 1902.

This Proclamation

applicable to all executors, &c., appointed after the date thereof.

Appointment of appraisers for the

valuation of estates and property.

Oath of appraisers before Judge, Magis

trate or Justice of the Peace.

Master's fees.

Proc. No. 28

of 1902.

Meetings

before

authorised official.

124. Any meeting advertised to be held before any Magistrate or other Resident Magistrate under the twenty-seventh and seventy-eighth Sections hereof may, in the absence of such Magistrate on leave or duty, or through indisposition, be held before an official to be authorised by the Master.

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125. The Governor may, by proclamation, from time to time make and revoke rules and regulations for the better carrying into effect of the provisions of this Proclamation, the custody and preservation of the records, securities and valuable effects of the Master's office, the payment of money into and out of the Guardian's Fund, and generally for the management and good conduct of the business of the Master's office.

126. In no case shall any heir of any one dying after the taking effect of this Proclamation be entitled to claim out of the estate of the person so dying, any portion under or by virtue of the laws known respectively as the Falcidian and the Trebellianic laws which, but for such laws respectively such heir would not be entited to claim.

127. From and after the taking effect of this Proclamation the law known as the law or "Lex Hac Edictali" shall be and the same is hereby repealed.

128. No legitimate portion shall be claimable of right by any one out of the estate of any person who shall die after the taking effect of this Proclamation.

129. Every person competent to make a will who shall die after the taking effect of this Proclamation shall have full power to disinherit or omit to mention in his will any child, parent, relative or descendant without assigning any reason for such disinheritance or omission any law usage or custom now or heretofore in force in this Colony notwithstanding; and no such will as aforesaid shall be liable to be set aside as invalid, either wholly or in part, by reason of such disinheritance or omission as aforesaid.

130. All and singular the tacit hypothecations following, or such of them as now by law exist, are hereby abolished:

(1) The tacit hypothecations possessed by minors upon the estates of their pro-tutors or guardians, and upon the estates of agents or others intermeddling with the property or affairs of such minors, and by insane persons, adjudged prodigals and interdicted persons upon the estates of their curators in security of the debts due and owing by such guardians, pro-tutors, agents or curators in their said capacity.

(2) The tacit hypothecation possessed by legatees in security of their legacies upon the estates of the testators by whom the legacies were bequeathed.

(3) The tacit hypothecation possessed by fidei-commissary heirs or legatees upon the estates of the fiduciary heirs

or legatees having a limited interest in the inheritances
or legacies in question.

(4) The tacit hypothecation possessed by women married
out of community of property upon the estates of their
husbands in respect of assets belonging to such women
administered by their husbands.

(5) The tacit hypothecation possessed by children upon the
estate of their surviving parent in respect of property
coming from their deceased parent.

(6) The tacit hypothecation possessed by Government in
respect of over-due taxes upon the estates of persons
liable to pay the same or upon property affected by
such taxes.

(7) The tacit hypothecation of the local Executive
Government of this Colony upon the estates of
auctioneers and deputy-postmasters, considered as
collectors or receivers of the public revenue in security
of any debts or demands due by them in their said
capacities to the said Government.

(8) The tacit hypothecation of the said Government upon
the estates of persons who shall have entered into
contracts with the said Government in security for
the performance of such contracts, or for any damages
sustained by the non-performance thereof.

(9) The tacit hypothecation possessed by municipalities,
churches and generally any public body or institution
whatsoever upon the estates of persons entrusted with
the collection. custody or administration of their
revenues in security for the revenues not accounted for
by such persons.

(10) The tacit hypothecation of persons by whom ships and houses have been built or repaired for the costs and charges thereby incurred; provided that nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to deprive any person of any right which he may now by law possess to retain any property whatsoever, which shall be in his actual possession until his costs and charges incurred thereon shall have been paid.

(11) The tacit hypothecation possessed by persons who have lent money for the purpose of being expended in the repair of houses and other property in security for the money so lent.

Proc. No. 28 of 1902.

Limitation of ap

clamation.

131. The provisions of the last preceding section shall not affect the estate of any person who died before the taking effect plication of this Proof this Proclamation, or any right or tacit hypothecation acquired before that date.

Limitation of ap

132. With regard to all rights of tacit hypothecation which are of the classes described in Sub-sections three and fire plication of this Proof Section one hundred and thirty of this Proclamation, and

28

clamation with regard to certain rights of hypothecation already acquired,

Proc. No. 28 of 1902.

Power of substitu

which have been acquired before the taking effect thereof, the following provisions shall apply:

(a) If the persons entitled to such rights are majors at the date of the taking effect of this Proclamation, then such right shall not be operative upon any immovable property for a longer period than one year from the said date, unless the existence of the said rights be recorded in the Deeds Office against the title of such property according to law.

(b) If the persons entitled are minors at the date of the taking effect of this Proclamation, then such rights shall not operate in respect of any immovable property for a longer period than two years from the date of the majority of the said persons, unless the existence thereof is recorded as required by the last preceding sub-section.

133. From and after the taking effect of this Proclamation tion and surrogation it shall not be competent for any person appointed executor in any estate, or tutor to any minor, to substitute or to surrogate any other person to act in his place.

abolished.

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134. It shall be lawful for the Governor to appoint an Acting Master of the Supreme Court, when and so often as occasion shall require, in case of the absence, sickness or other disability of the Master; and such Acting Master shall have power and authority to do any act or thing which may lawfully be done by the Master.

135. It shall be lawful for the Governor to appoint an officer to be styled the "Assistant Master," who shall, subject to such directions as the Attorney-General may from time to time issue, have power and authority to do any act or thing which may lawfully be done by the Master.

136. The several laws mentioned in Schedule "F," and so much of any other law as may be repugnant to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Proclamation, are hereby repealed.

137. Until the establishment of the Supreme Court mentioned in this Proclamation, the powers and jurisdiction conferred on that Court or any Judge thereof shall respectively be vested in and be exercised by the High Court of the Transvaal, or any member thereof; and the powers and jurisdiction conferred and the duties imposed on the AttorneyGeneral and on the Master of the Supreme Court shall be conferred and imposed on the Legal Adviser to the Transvaal Administration, and on the Master of the High Court of the Transvaal respectively.

138. This Proclamation may be cited for all purposes as the "Administration of Estates Proclamation, 1902," and shall take effect from and after the first day of June, 1902.

SCHEDULE "A."

DEATH NOTICE.

Pursuant to the provisions contained in "The Administration of Estates
Proclamation, 1902."

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This notice must be filled up and signed by the nearest relative or connection of the deceased, who shall at the time be at, or near, the place of death-or, in the absence of such near relative or connection, by the person who at, or immediately after, the death shall have the chief charge of the house in, or the place on, which the death shall occur, and must be sent either to the Master of the Supreme Court in Pretoria, or, if the death occurred in the country districts, the Resident Magistrate of the district in duplicate within fourteen days of the death.

Proc. No. 28 of 1902.

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