which fail simply close down without ever becoming the subject of bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings. However, it is noteworthy that the estimated total liabilities of those cases in which orders were made during the year was at $63,527,000 the second highest since the war, being surpassed only by the figure for 1965-66, which included the liabilities of The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank, Ltd. The affairs of this bank and the Ming Tak Bank, which collapsed in January 1965, continued to occupy a great deal of the time and energies of officers in the Commercial and Personal Division, and in order to relieve the pressure on them the responsibility for the Companies, Trade Marks and Patents Registries continued to be shouldered by the other Division of the Department.
14. During the previous year the Official Receiver as Trustee of the Ming Tak Bank had completed with the help of a Government loan three multi-storeyed buildings which had been under construction when the Bank failed. Unfortunately, owing to the adverse factors already mentioned there was little immediate demand for the units in these buildings even at reduced prices, and sales during the year produced only $719,600. For the same reason, only slow progress was made with the disposal of the properties owned by The Canton Trust and Com- mercial Bank, Ltd. Collection of the book debts was also by no means easy in a year where money was tight and the property market depressed. Nevertheless the substantial total of $6,167,000 was collected, which enabled a further $5,500,000 to be repaid to the Government, leaving $4,000,000 outstanding of the original $22,500,000 advanced to enable a first dividend of 25% to be paid to the unsecured creditors. An analysis of the 1,828 debts totalling $119,976,000 outstanding at the end of the year is included in paragraph 121.
Births, Marriages and Deaths
15. The number of births registered in 1967 continued the downward trend from the peak of 115,263 in 1963, and was in fact at 88,171 the lowest total since 1956. For the seventh successive year the birth rate fell, the 1967 rate of 23.0 per 1,000 of population being 1.8 below the figure for 1966. As will be seen from the comparative rates given in paragraph 159, the Hong Kong rate is well below the estimates of 39 for Asia and 34 for the World, and is now not much larger than the rate of 21.6 in Ireland. 2,473 births were post-registered more than one year after birth, and 93 entries made in the Adopted Children Register.
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