the Senior Legal Assistant returns to Departmental Headquarters to attend the weekly Departmental Legal Conferences and maintain close liaison with the Land Office on New Territories problems. In addition a Legal Assistant was assigned part-time to New Territories matters.
51. Among the matters dealt with by the New Territories Section was the sale of the remaining 89 out of the 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 construction of the Shek Pik Reservoir on Lantau Island. For technical reasons Crown leases for these units were granted to the Colonial Treas- urer Incorporated, and by September 1963 all the surplus units had been sold by public auction, the purchasers receiving assignments from the Colonial Treasurer Incorporated. The average price received for the flats was just under $24,000, and one shop was sold for $67,500. In all the arrangements for these sales the New Territories Section worked in close collaboration with the New Territories Administration and the Solicitors acting for the Colonial Treasurer Incorporated.
Crown Leases
52. As a glance at Table III will show, the numbers of Crown leases issued in the past four years are very much below the average of those issued in the previous six years. This has been due to the Department being for nearly the whole of the year eight legal officers short of its establishment. It was therefore impossible to allocate much of the re- stricted legal time available to the issue of Crown leases. The slow progress made in the issue of leases gave rise to a certain amount of public criticism, but in fact in many cases the Land Office finds it difficult to persuade owners to take up their Crown leases when ready. This is because the taking up of a Crown lease involves an owner in a certain amount of trouble and expense. Although the standard fee for a Crown lease is only $175, it is necessary where there is a mortgage or other incumbrance. on the property to employ a Solicitor to clear the title and reinstate the mortgage or incumbrance after issue. Since the Crown is the lessor, the vast majority of owners are usually content to allow their title to rest on the Conditions of Sale, Regrant, Exchange, etc., on which they hold their property, and such titles are in practice universally recognized as good marketable titles.
53. Notwithstanding these difficulties there was a moderate increase in the number of leases issued, the year's total being 72, 35 more than
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