Conditions of Sale, Extension, Exchange, Grant and Regrant was 848, more than double the previous year's total of 400.
Companies and Trade Marks
9. The effects of the land boom are also apparent in the Companies Registry's statistics of work done. In 1962-63 out of 1,149 new com- panies incorporated with capitals totalling $887,216,000 no less than 437 with capitals totalling $470,980,000 were land and building com- panies. It is safe to say that most of these 437 companies were, in accordance with the now standard practice of developers, incorporated specially for a single venture, namely the construction of a multi-storey building and its immediate disposal by selling off the individual units therein. At 437 the number of such companies was up by 113 from the previous year, and the next largest category, import and export com- panies, was also up sharply from 189 to 266 with capitals totalling $152,592,000. Further evidence of expanding business activity is afforded by the marked increase in the number of trade marks registered, the figure jumping from 1,095 last year to the record total of 1,563. On the other hand patents registrations dropped to 149 as compared with 178 in 1961-62.
Bankruptcies and Liquidations
10. There was no material change in the number of bankruptcies and compulsory liquidations, there being 12 new cases as compared with 10 in 1961-62. These cases of course, represented only a small fraction of business failures, most of which take place without any official intervention. It is in fact generally indicative of good times when creditors are content to take their losses without presenting bankruptcy or winding-up petitions; it is when money is tight and business slack that creditors are more inclined to put their debtors through the statutory mill.
Births, Marriages and Deaths
11. As for the births, marriages and deaths side of the Department's work, the changes in the volume of work handled were relatively small. 12. Reversing the trend of the previous eleven years, the number of marriages registered in 1962-63 declined as compared with the previous year. The decline was from 11,837 to 11,187 and was entirely due to a drop of 654 in the number of Registry marriages, Church marriages actually increasing from 1,245 to 1,249. It is, however, gratifying that in its first full year of operation the handsome new City
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