Chang Min Tat J:

This is an application under the provisions of O. 54A r. 1 Rules of the Supreme Court for the construction of a deed of settlement, the main issues being whether the provision as to 600f the trust property did or did not offend against the perpetuity rule and whether the provision as to the remaining 40 did not fail by reason of impossibility of performance or failure of object.

A first point was taken, in my view, validly, by Mr. Lim Kean Chye for one of the respondents, whether the application could be considered by me in the absence of the original document, In anticipation of this objection, the trusteeapplicants had filed an affidavit explaining, that the original deed was lost in the looting consequent on the military invasion of this country by the Japanese. This explanation is in my view reasonable and there is no reason to hold that it was not the truth. The document relied on was taken from the copy deposited in accordance with the statutory provisions relating to the registration of deeds at the Registry of Titles for the State of Perak. At the time of the deposition, the registry was at Taiping. It had since been removed to Ipoh, which rather