year. Notices of marriage and registry marriages were up 46.7% and 21.7% respectively as compared with the preceding year. There were 7 more cases of application for abridgment of notice, all requiring thorough examination. The only item which showed a decrease was the number of Certificates of Absence of Record which dropped to 7 compared with last year's total of 18. This was attributed to the reduced requirements for passport, emigration or naturalization purposes following the return of more normal conditions after the 1967 disturb-
ances.
PART IX
BIRTHS AND DEATHS REGISTRY
General
159. The registration of births and deaths is compulsory under the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance. The General Register Office is situated at Li Po Chun Chambers, 92-97 Connaught Road Central, and there are nine District Registries on Hong Kong Island and six in Kowloon and New Kowloon. In the New Territories there are full- time Birth Registries at Tai Po, Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long, and also 'part-time' Registries at various Rural Committee Offices, which District Registrars visit according to a regular programme. Deaths in the New Territories are reported to local police stations. In addition to the above, three mobile teams operate in the New Territories dealing with applications for post-registration of births. Table XXXIII shows the present organization of the Registry.
160. On 10th February 1969, a new Births and Deaths Registry was opened on the 1st floor of the Chartered Bank Building at Aberdeen Main Road, Aberdeen, combining with the new Aberdeen Marriage Registry referred to in paragraph 146. This new Registry provides full-time registration facilities for the growing population in the Aberdeen area. Previously, birth registration was carried out in a ‘part- time' birth registry at the Aberdeen Jockey Club Clinic, while deaths were registered in the Aberdeen Police Station. The mobile registration team which in the past operated at the old Rural Committee Office in Sha Tau Kok, but which, during the disturbances in 1967, was tempo- rarily housed in the Sha Tau Kok Government Primary School, moved to an office in the new Sha Tau Kok Rural Committee Office in April 1968.
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