160
LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS
their respective dates of registration, and also that deeds and in- struments not registered (other than bona fide leases at rack rent for any term not exceeding three years) shall be absolutely null and void as against any subsequent bona fide purchaser or mortgagee for valuable consideration. Registration is therefore essential to the protection of title, but does not guarantee it. The Land Office also advises the Government on matters relating to land and undertakes government conveyancing.
Land Office statistics for the year were not influenced by the reduced tempo of new building work towards the end of the year, for instruments registered during the year stemmed from the more active conditions prevailing_earlier. The number of instruments registered reached the record total of 46,740 as against last year's total of 35,880. The total of considerations recorded was $3,341,855,066 including $863,787,924 passing on sales of flats. A total of $1,373,563,554 was advanced on mortgages of land at an average rate of about 12 per cent per annum. At the end of the year the Land Office card index of property owners contained the names of over 90,694 people, some owning several properties, others being merely co-owners of a small flat.
Control over the sales of units in uncompleted buildings was continued in those cases where the conditions under which the land was held gave the necessary power.
The Companies Registry keeps records of all companies incor- porated in Hong Kong and also of all foreign corporations which have established a place of business in the Colony. Local companies are incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, which is based on the (now superseded) Companies Act, 1929, of Great Britain. On incorporation a company pays a registration fee of $100 plus $2 for every $1,000 of nominal capital. There was a new record total of 1,439 company registrations during the year. This was 190 more than the previous record established in 1963. The nominal capital of the new companies registered during 1964 totalled $1,345,333,640 an increase of 66 per cent over the corresponding figure for the previous year. Of the new companies 38 had a nominal share capital of $5 million or over. At the end of the year there were 8,364 local companies on the register compared with 7,046 in 1963.