CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
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and headquarters staff under a Deputy District Commissioner, co-ordinates the overall administration of the New Territories. There is also a Resident Magistrate, who is a judicial officer and who holds Courts at Tai Po and Ping Shan.
The District Officer is concerned with every aspect of govern- ment activity in his district and acts as the principal link between the Government and the local inhabitants. His responsibilities include the holding of land and small debt courts, and arbitration in all kinds of village and personal disputes, including family and matrimonial cases. He controls the utilization and sale of Crown land; he administers the grant of temporary structure permits and the control of squatters; he registers documents and deeds relating to private land; and all building plans will still require to be passed by him until the new legislation is brought into force which was enacted during the year, applying the Buildings Ordinance, 1955, to the New Territories. He assesses and collects stamp duty, and issues licences for various types of licensed premises. He has an allocation of funds from the New Territories local public works vote; this pays for materials to help villagers in the improvement of irrigation and water supplies, to build paths and small bridges and to carry out many other minor works which better the amenities of the villages.
District Officers have the assistance of Rural Committees, elected by and from village representatives, and exercising various advisory functions. There are now twenty seven of these com- mittees, covering the entire New Territories, and during 1960 they received for the first time a small monthly subvention from the Government to cover routine expenses. Within its own area each Rural Committee acts as the spokesman for local public opinion, arbitrates in clan and family disputes, and generally provides a bridge between the Administration and the people.
The Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the 27 Rural Committees, together with the unofficial New Territories Justices of the Peace and 21 elected Special Councillors, form the Full Council of the Heung Yee Kuk, whose title may be translated into English as Rural Consultative Council. The Kuk serves as a forum where leaders of New Territories opinion have gathered since it was first constituted in 1926, and from which (except during the period from August 1958 to December 1959 when official recognition