N.J. Stat. § 46:24-11
The commissioners of land records appointed under the provisions of the act entitled "An act to establish the use of local indexes for public records relating to land in certain counties in this state," approved March twenty-ninth, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight (L.1888, c. 222, p. 309), or the commissioners appointed under section 46:24-1 of this title, may establish such index of maps on file or to be filed in the office of the county recording officer of any county for which such commissioners shall have been or shall be appointed, as they deem proper; and the number or designation in such index given to every such filed map by such commissioners shall not thereafter be changed or altered, and such system of map indexing, so established by such commissioners, shall thereafter be continued by the county recording officer of such county, and all maps thereafter filed shall be numbered consecutively in the order of their receipt, commencing with the number next after the latest number adopted or given by such commissioners in the index so established.
N.J.S. § 46:24-11