following years.
6
This will involve settling the terms.
for renewal and preparing and issuing preliminary title, and later the new Crown Leases, in some thousands of individual cases.
(b) Similarly Crown Leases of all piers in the Colony (which were granted originally for one fixed term of 50 years) expired on 31st December, 1949. Approximately 100 piers are involved, and it is necessary to conclude arrange- ments for the issue of new title in all these cases.
(c) During the period of the Japanese occupation of the Colony, some 5,000 transactions in land such as Sales, Reassignments and other dealings took place. The records of the Japanese House Registration Office main- tained in respect of these transactions were taken over intact on the re-occupation and the entries transferred to the normal Land Office Registers in the form of green ink entries against the titles affected. These green ink entries have led to a large number of applications to which of course special consideration apply.
(d) In order to further the provision of much needed extra housing accommodation, a large number of grants of land on special concessionary terms have been made. The Land Office has thus had to deal with the provision of title to a very large number of individual house sites as well as to a number of large areas made available on special terms to companies or associations for develop- ment as housing estates.
(e) Land Office work in connection with the resumption of land under the provisions of the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance, 1900 has now assumed much greater pro- portions than hitherto, there being in addition to the Kai Tak Airfield Resumption claims, of which separate mention is made in the preceding paragraph of this report, many other resumptions and surrenders of land for street widening, town planning and other public purposes, either proceeding or pending. This work involves the preliminary steps in the issue of resumption notices, the arrangements in connection with the con- stitution and sittings of the Compensation Board, pre- paration of Deeds of Surrenders and later the investiga- tion of the title and the subsequent payment of the compensation claims in the case of each individual land
owner.
(f) As was to be expected, the conditions prevailing in the post-war years have led to many applications for the grant of land on special terms for churches, schools, clubs and charitable and other societies, and grants have been made in a variety of such cases subject to appropriate restrictive conditions.