MARINE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY
year and the lowest figure since 1962-63. The aggregate of all capitals was down, too, to $414m., $166m. less than in 1966-67, but experience shows that local companies increase their capitals quickly when required, and the smaller initial capitals may merely indicate a disinclination to pay more capital registration fees than are necessary to begin with. The most notable changes in numbers according to business are listed in paragraph 69, and include increases of 15 to 77 in the number of restaurants and night clubs, and of 6 to 13 in printers and lithographers. On the other hand, there has been a general decrease in numbers in respect of other businesses, notably in the number of import/export companies, down 69 to 315, and engineering, etc. companies, down 38 to 40. 296 companies were dissolved, including 193 struck off the Register under Section 291 of the Companies Ordinance, leaving 11,889 companies on the Register at the end of the year. The number of com- panies incorporated outside the Colony which have established a place of business here rose by 8 to 600, including 150 companies incorporated in the United States, 98 in the United Kingdom, and 60 in Japan. With the vast amount of trade conducted in and from Hong Kong, there is also a vast amount of insurance business done, and there are as many as 201 companies conducting the regulated classes of business, including 64 United Kingdom companies, 48 Hong Kong companies and 31 United States companies.
12. The total number of applications for registration of trade marks was 1,925, somewhat below the average of the previous five years. Hong Kong led with 408 applications followed by the United States with 395 and the United Kingdom with 235. 1,662 marks were registered and 1,615 renewed, bringing the total on the register up to 22,119. 338 patents were registered during the year. The United States was in the lead with 149; the United Kingdom, Switzerland, West Germany, Hong Kong and Japan followed with 74, 33, 29, 16 and 16 respectively.
Bankruptcies and Liquidations
13. Nineteen receiving orders, three administration orders and twenty-five winding-up orders were made during the year, the latter being the highest number ever made in one year. The high number of liquidations may, however, be as much attributable to the growth in the number of companies, which has quadrupled in the last decade, as to anything else. In any event the number of bankruptcy and liquida- tion cases that come into the hands of the Official Receiver is no reli- able index to business conditions, since every year many businesses
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