22,909. 431 patents were registered during the year. The United States was in the lead with 181; the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, West Germany and Hong Kong followed with 60, 49, 39, 32 and 18 respectively.
Bankruptcies and Liquidations
11. Seven receiving orders, two administration orders and twenty- two winding-up orders were made during the year, the latter being only three less than the record set in 1967-68. The high number of liquidations may, however, be in part attributable to the growth in the number of companies, which has almost quadrupled in the last decade. In any event the number of bankruptcy and liquidation cases that come into the hands of the Official Receiver is no reliable index to business conditions, since every year many businesses which fail simply close down without ever becoming the subject of bankruptcy or liquida- tion proceedings. However, it is noteworthy that the estimated total liabilities of those cases in which orders were made during the year was at $35,000,000 the third highest since the war, being surpassed only by the figures for 1965-66 and 1967-68, the former of which included the liabilities of The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank, Limited. 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.
12. In 1966-67 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 prevailing at that time there was little immediate demand for the units in these buildings even at reduced prices. The improvement in the property market in the second half of the year under review unfortunately did not extend to the kind of properties owned by the Bank, and sales during the year produced only $326,000. The increased demand for and shortage of industrial land, however, had a marked effect on The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank, Limited liquidation, the sale prices of properties in this case totalling over $1,740,000. Collection of the book debts in this liquidation continued to be difficult in a year where money was tight and the property market still not fully recovered. Nevertheless the
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