226
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
Kowloon and portions of New Kowloon, instruments affecting land in the rest of New Kowloon and the New Territories being registered in one or other of the four District Offices. Although the system of registration under the Land Registration Ordinance is basically one of registration of deeds and not of title, the Land Office Registers do in fact show in a clear and accurate manner the devolution of title to each lot, or section of a lot, and details of all encumbrances affecting it. The result is that, in practice, the system is regarded as virtually equivalent to registration of title. Land tenure is described in Chapters 7 and 10.
Among the other functions of the Land Office are the issue, renewal, variation and termination of Crown leases of all land registered in the Land Office, the granting of mining leases, and advising-the Government generally on matters relating to land.
The demand for housing, office and factory accommodation has continued unabated and the building industry had another very busy year. In the principal thoroughfares great new buildings were everywhere to be seen springing skywards, while in the side streets, where formerly three or four storeyed buildings ranged in un- relieved monotony, six, eight or ten storey buildings have begun to set the pattern of things to come. All this was reflected in the Land Office statistics for the year. The number of land transactions rose by 8% to the record figure of 19,585, and the grand total of the amounts involved passed the $1,000,000,000 mark, for the first time being at $1,018,069,000 an increase of $38,000,000, or about 4% over the 1958 total. Sums advanced on mortgages of land totalled $332,854,000, an increase of $3,000,000 over the 1958 figure. The average rate of interest declined slightly to about 11% per annum.
Companies. The Companies Registry maintains records of all companies incorporated in Hong Kong, and also of all foreign corporations carrying on business in the Colony. 446 new com- panies were incorporated in 1959, and 42 foreign corporations established places of business. At the end of the year there were 3,625 local companies on the Register and 404 foreign corporations with a place of business in Hong Kong, as compared with 3,251 and 381 respectively in 1958.
The Companies Ordinance (Chapter 32) is based on the Companies Act, 1929, of Great Britain (since replaced by the