A mortgage under the land titles system does not convey the legal estate or transfer the land to the mortgagee, but has effect as security merely, (z). Therefore the mortgagee has no estate to be reconveyed on payment of the mortgage, and a discharge does not operate as a reconveyance of the mortgagee's estate to the mortgagor or other person best entitled, as under the system of registration of deeds (a). The state of the title is that which appears from time to time on the register and the effect of the registration of a discharge is simply to get rid of the mortgage in whole or in part as a charge upon the estate of the registered owner.

It is provided in Manitoba by the Real Property Act,

R.S.M. 1913, c. 171, s. 112, as follows:

112. Upon the production of any memorandum of discharge of mortgage or encumbrance, duly executed, discharging the whole or part of such mortgage or encumbrance or the whole or part of the land comprised in such mortgage or encumbrance from the moneys thereby secured, the district registrar shall make an entry in the register, noting that such mortgage or encumbrance is discharged wholly or partially or that part of the land is discharged as aforesaid, as the case may require; and, upon such entry being made, such mortgage or encumbrance shall be released to the extent named in such memorandum of discharge (b).

It is provided in Saskatchewan by the Land Titles Act. 1917, s. 118, as follows (c):

118.- (l)-Upon production to the registrar of:

(a) A memorandum of discharge, duly executed, and attested, discharging the whole or part of a mortgage or encumbrance, or the whole or a part of the land therein comprised; or the registrar shall make an entry on the register that the mortgage or encumbrance is discharged wholly or in part, or that part of the land is discharged, as the case may be.

(z) See chapter 10, The Land Titles Acts. Sec. 93.

(a) See Sec. Sec. 181, 182 and 184.

(b) Under ss. 74 and 90 a similar entry must be made on the duplicate certificate of title unless production thereof is dispensed with under the provisions of the statute, and under s. 127 the certificate of charge, if any, must be delivered up or its loss or destruction proved.

(b) a certificate signed by a judge that payment of the whole or a part of the moneys due under a mortgage or encumbrance has been proved to his satisfaction;

(2) Upon such entry being made the land, or the estate or interest in the land, or the portion of the land mentioned or referred to therein shall cease to be liable for such principal sum or annuity or for the part thereof mentioned in the entry as discharged, as the case may be.

Provisions similar in effect to those of the Saskatchewan statute are contained in the Land Titles Acts of Alberta (d) and the Northwest Territories (e), except that the last mentioned statutes provide for the production of the mortgage or encumbrance having endorsed thereon or attached thereto a receipt or acknowledgment in the prescribed form, and the Alberta statute also provides that "where it is stated in the mortgage or encumbrance that the money has been advanced on joint account" the receipt or acknowledgment may be signed by "the surviving mortgagee or encumbrancee."

It is provided in Manitoba (f) that if a mortgagor becomes entitled to pay off a mortgage, and the mortgagee is absent from the province and there is no person in the province auth orized to receive the money and execute a discharge, after the date appointed for the redemption of the mortgage, payment may be made to the provincial treasurer.

(c) 1917 (2nd sess.), c. 18, s. 118. Provision is made by s. 119 for the discharge of an encumbrance, and by ss. 50 and 54 for the making of an entry on the duplicate certificate of title.

(d) 1906, c. 24, s. 63, as amended by 1911-12, c. 4, s. 15. Provision is also made by s. 71, as amended by 1911-12, c. 4, s. 15, for the production of the certificate of charge, if any, or proof of its loss or destruction, and by ss. 20 and 25 for the making of an entry on the duplicate certificate of title.

(e) R.S.C. 1906, c. 110, s. 100. Provision is made by s. 41 for the making of an entry on the duplicate certificate of title.

(f) R.S.M. 1913, c. 171, s. 125.

In Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories (g) it is provided that if a mortgagor becomes entitled to pay off the mortgage money and the registered mortgagee is absent and there is no person authorized by registered power of attorney to give a receipt, after the date appointed for redemption, a judge may direct payment, in the case of Saskatchewan, to the provincial treasurer, and in the case of Alberta and the Northwest Territories, to a chartered bank. The Saskatchewan statute also has a similar provision if the registered mortgagee is deceased and has no personal representative.

In Ontario it is provided by the Land Titles Act, R.S.O. 1914, c. 126, s. 37, as follows:

87.- (1) The proper master of titles shall, on the requisition of the registered owner of any land and on due proof of the satisfaction of a charge thereon, or may, on the requisition of the registered owner of a charge or of his personal representative or on his certificate of the satisfaction thereof, note on the register in the prescribed manner, by cancelling the original entry or otherwise, the cessation of the charge, and thereupon the charge shall cease.

(2) The master may in like manner and with the like effect note the cessation of any other encumbrance.

(3) On the requisition or certificate of the registered owner of a charge or of. the personal representative of such owner authorizing or certifying the discharge of any part of the land therefrom or the discharge of any part of the money thereby secured, the master may note on the register* the discharge of such land from the charge or the discharge of such part of the money and thereupon as to the land or money discharged the charge shall cease.

(4) The death of the person who signed the requisition or certificate shall not revoke or otherwise affect the same.

(g) Sask. statutes, 1917 (2nd sess.), c. 18, s. 120; Alta. statutes, 1906, c. 24, s. 65; R.S.C. 1906, c. 110, s. 102.