Senior Legal Assistant and an experienced Land Office clerk working there full time except Saturdays, when the Senior Legal Assistant attended at the Land Office to be present at the weekly Departmental Legal Conferences and maintain close liaison with the main Land Office staff on New Territories problems. In addition a Legal Assistant was assigned part-time to New Territories matters.
39. Among the matters dealt with by the New Territories Section was the sale of the first batch out of 107 surplus units in the six blocks of flats (with shops on the ground floor) built at Tsuen Wan for the resettlement of the Shek Pik villagers displaced as a result of the con- struction of the new Shek Pik Reservoir on Lantau Island. For technical reasons Crown leases for these units had been granted in 1961-62 to the Colonial Treasurer Incorporated, and the first batch of 18 units in Block A were sold by public auction at Tsuen Wan on 21st February 1963, the purchasers receiving assignments from the Colonial Treasurer Incorporated. The average price received for the flats was just under $24,000. In all the arrangements for these sales the New Territories Section worked in close collaboration with the New Territories Adminis- tration and the Solicitors acting for the Colonial Treasuer Incorporated.
Crown Leases
40. Unfortunately once again, owing to shortage of legal staff and extreme pressure of other work, it was found necessary to restrict work on the preparation of Crown leases to those cases where for one reason or another it was important that the lease be issued as matter of urgency. There were therefore only 37 Crown leases issued during the year, the same number as 1961-62. In the meantime thousands of lots are held on agreements for lease contained in the relevant Conditions of Sale, etc., and as the Crown is the lessor such agreements are universally recognized as giving a good marketable title. The lots for which leases were issued were of the following categories:
Hong Kong Island
Inland Lots, Hong Kong
Kowloon
Kowloon Inland Lots
Hung Hom Inland Lots
New Kowloon
New Kowloon Inland Lots
15
16
...
1
5
37
Table II shows the numbers of Crown leases issued annually since
1953-54.
14
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