Services Training Course 'B', 1958/59. He was allocated to Trinity College, Oxford University, and left for England on 25th August, 1958. Welfare
84. The Registrar General's Department Charitable and Benevolent Fund, which was set up last year for charitable and benevolent purposes relating to the staff of the Department and to the Colony generally, is supported by the voluntary contributions of the more senior members of the staff. $50 was given to charity, and five loans totalling $200 were made to junior members of the staff, mostly for the purpose of paying night school fees, refundable upon their successfully completing their classes. $140 had already been repaid by the end of the year. The amount of the Fund at the end of the year was $616.20.
Social
85. A number of social functions were held during the year. On 24th June, 1958, a departmental dinner was held at the Hong Kong Jockey Club to say farewell to Mr. W. Aneurin Jones on his retirement. On 6th September, 1958, a large number of the staff and members of their families spent a very enjoyable afternoon swimming and picnic- king at Picnic Bay on Lamma Island. On 4th March, 1959, another departmental dinner was held, this time at the Ying King Restaurant, to celebrate Mr. W. K. Thomson's promotion to Registrar General. Throughout the year the senior officers of the Department have lunched together on a number of occasions. Presentations were made on their retirement to Mr. W. Aneurin Jones, and to Mr. TANG Kai Wing, G.C.S. Special Class, who had since before the war held the responsible post of principal registration clerk in the Land Office and performed his duties as such in an exemplary fashion.
Ten Years' Retrospect
86. The Department having on 31st March, 1959, completed the tenth year of its existence, it is of interest to look back and record some miscellaneous facts about the work of the Department during the decade. The Department had in 1949/50 an establishment of thirty officers, supplemented by three Deputy Registrar Generals seconded from the Legal Department and eleven Temporary Clerks; in 1959/60, having in the meantime absorbed the Births and Deaths Registry, it had an establishment of 128 and a supernumerary staff of eight, but the number of legally qualified officers remained unchanged at four. The expenditure has grown from $183,601 (excluding the Births and
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