PART I
INTRODUCTORY
THE Registrar General's Department was established on 1st April 1949 by the Registrar General (Establishment) Ordinance (Cap. 100), and now comprises the Land Office, the Companies, Trade Marks, Patents, Marriages, and Births and Deaths Registries, and the Offices of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy and Companies Winding-up, the Official Trustee, and the Official Solicitor in Lunacy. With the exception of the Marriage and Births and Deaths Registries all these Offices and Registries are, along with the Headquarters of the Department, located on the 11th floor of the Central Government Offices, West Wing, Lower Albert Road, Victoria. The locations of the Marriage and Births and Deaths Registries are given in Parts VI and VII relating to these Registries.
2. At the end of the year the establishment of the Department consisted of the Registrar General, a Deputy Registrar General, two Senior Legal Assistants, six Legal Assistants, a Senior Assistant Registrar, nineteen Assistant Registrars, two Executive Officers and 159 other officers. There was also a supernumerary staff of one Legal Assistant, three Assistant Registrars and thirteen other officers. Table I shows how this staff, permanent and supernumerary, totalling 208 officers, was distributed among the various Branches of the Department on 31st March 1962. As indicated thereon vacancies existed for one Senior Legal Assistant, three Legal Assistants and one Assistant Registrar.
History
PART II
LAND OFFICE
3. The Land Office is the oldest branch of the Department. On the foundation of the Colony in 1841 it was imperative that land be made available immediately to the merchants and others desirous of estab- lishing their business or residence in the Colony. A Land Officer was therefore appointed early in that year to deal with applications for land. Three years later the Land Registration Ordinance No. 3 of 1844,
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