dinance formal notice in writing must be given at the Registry in every case, the marriage then taking place on the authority of the certificate of the Registrar of Marriages after the lapse of a 15 days period of notice prescribed by law, or upon a special licence issued by the Governor. The marriage may be solemnized in any church or place of worship which is licensed for that purpose, by any competent minister of the church, denomination or body to which such place of worship belongs, or it may take place as a civil marriage in the Registry.
In recent years there has been increased appreciation amongst all classes of the Chinese community of the advantages of a properly recorded marriage celebrated in accordance with the formalities prescribed by the Marriage Ordinance, and though the total of 2,022 marriages registered during the year shows some decrease as com- pared with the figure for the previous year, the proportion of Chinese marriages still remains very high, 1,733 of this total being between persons of Chinese race, of which 1,468 took place at the Registry and the remaining 265 in licensed places of worship. In the case of the marriage of Chinese, festival periods and other propitious dates according to the Chinese calendar feature as an important element in the selection of the day for the actual ceremony, and this of course results in considerable fluctuation in the number of marriages celebrated in the Colony from day to day, as many as 20 to 25 marriages being sometimes recorded in the Registry in one day.
Marriages of Chinese taking place at the Registry being often the prelude to more elaborate ceremonies prescribed by custom, a variety of ceremonial dress is often in evidence there, full European formal dress being adopted in some cases whilst others follow the colourful Chinese traditional style, the bride and women relatives being attired in elaborate gowns of red and black heavily embroidered in gold and silver, gold ornaments being worn in profusion.
Companies, Trade Marks and Patents
The Companies (Reconstruction of Records) Ordinance, 1947, makes provision for the reconstruction of the records of the Com- panies Office all of which were lost as a result of the war. About 500 companies have complied or were in the course of complying during the year with the provisions of this Ordinance.
1,364 new trade marks were registered during 1950, and 354 pre-war trade marks were re-registered pursuant to the provisions of the Trade Marks Register (Reconstruction) Ordinance, 1947, the total number of trade marks on the register at the end of the year being 6,656.
POLICE
The Hong Kong Police is probably unique in having to deal with an oversized population by far the greater part of which was until 1949 permitted to have free entry and egress at all points in the Colony; at the same time the amount of local manpower available for recruitment has always been limited. For this reason Cantonese
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