Dr. Ulrich Hübbe,
WHO has rendered great services to this colony in connection with the Real Property Act, is a native of Hamburg. He was but a youth when the French, under Napoleon, attacked the town and gave it over to pillage, but even yet he retains lively recollections of this episode. He has spent the greater part of his life in South Australia, and at the present time, having completely lost his sight, is almost wholly dependent for his incoming on his son. This is not as it should be, and Dr. Hübbe deserves better treatment at the hands of our colonists. Though the working of the Beal Property Act is now universally known, few of those most benefitted thereby have the slightest idea of the prominent part which Dr. Hübbe played in its construction. He it was who explained to Sir R. R. Torrens the form of certificates of title and encumbrances in force in the Hanseatic towns of his native land; and Sir Robert was so much pleased with the simple way in which the charges were detailed that, with Dr. Hübbe's assistance, he transferred the idea as far as was practicable into the Bill. From this source in particular was embodied the principle that mortgages should not change the freehold property, but that they should simply be charges on the property in priority one over the other. The result of the disclosure of these facts led to the re-drafting of the Bill by Mr. R. B. Andrews; but on its being submitted to Dr. Hübbe, he expressed his disapproval of it, chiefly on the grounds that it did not contain an efficient repeal of the old system, the absence of stringent provisions for bringing equitable estates and interests under the Act, and the necessity that existed for- providing more definitely that no estate or interest on such lands should pass at all by deed or any documentary evidence, but exclusively by registration of each special transaction in the public books of the colony. He thereupon drew the very comprehensive repeal clause printed in the Act, and he subsequently spent several days in remodelling the whole draft. He submitted his alterations to Sir R. R. Torrens, and the draft Bill thus revised was placed before Parliament; but no compensation was given him for his services. Dr. Hübbe has written much on a variety of subjects, and also taken an active part in many public matters. Though, like all men, prone to err, his intense independence and thorough love for his adopted country have made him an earnest advocate on the side of reform. Since his retirement from active life he has spent a great portion of his time in writing an epic poem descriptive of the progress of civilization in Germany in connection with free trade. This work has been sent to Germany, and been favourably criticised by those to whom it has been submitted, but owing to pecuniary difficulties it has never been published. A recent Government voted him a sum of money, but of so small an amount that it cannot be said he has been compensated for his services in connection with the R.P.A.