XCR(79)105
RESTRICTED
2
which was then performing this duty, to the Registrar General's Department.
5
Over the years,the Registrar General's Department has become more clearly identified with the corporate and property sector and in the last decade the most noticeable expansion of the Department's activities has been in the Land Office, the Companies Registry and the Official Receiver's Office; with the continuing development of Hong Kong as a com- mercial and financial centre it is likely that this trend will continue.
6
The absorption of the Registration of Persons Office by the Immigration Department in 1977, which concentrated other personal documentation services into a single organisation created an opportunity for considering whether the responsibility for the registration of births, deaths and marriage might not be placed more appropriately in that same organisation. The Immigration Department investigated this possibility and a departmental report in June 1978 concluded that the Registries would fit in well with the Department's existing personal documentation services. A sub- sequent meeting of representatives of all the Secretariat Branches and the Departments concerned agreed in late September 1978 that the transfer of responsibilities from the Registrar General to the Director of Immigration should be recommended. The Registrar General supports the transfer.
The Registration of Births, Deaths and Adoption (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 1979
7
Section 3 of the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance provides that the Registrar General shall be the Registrar of Births and Deaths and that the Registrar General's Department shall be the general register office. The new section 3 introduced by clause 2 of the amending bill would leave these to the discretion of the Governor, and the intention is that the Director of Immigration, as Commissioner of Registration, should be appointed Registrar of Births and Deaths, with his department serving as the general register office. An appointment as Registrar of Marriages would be made similarly under existing provisions in the Marriage Ordinance (Chapter 181).
G.S. 84
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