less than the figure for 1968-69. The total number of new cases was the lowest since 1964-65, but 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 bank- ruptcy or liquidation proceedings. However, it will be noted that the estimated total liabilities of those cases in which orders were made during the year was at $21.95m. the second lowest since 1964-65. The affairs of The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank, Limited and the Ming Tak Bank continued to occupy a great deal of the time and energies of officers in the Official Receiver's Office, and it was partly in order to relieve the pressure on them that a third Division of the Department was created with effect from 1st April 1969 (see para- graph 2).
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- storey buildings which had been under construction when the Bank failed. 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 during the year under review unfortunately did not offer much solace to the Trustee or the creditors, for it proved impossible to find buyers for any of the Bank's properties. Almost all of the properties have, how- ever, been let, and at end-March 1970 total rents being received amounted to $76,000 a month as compared with $60,000 at end-March 1969. The demand for and shortage of industrial land, however, con- tinued to have a marked effect on The Canton Trust and Commercial Bank, Limited liquidation, the sale prices of properties in this case increasing to over $1,900,000. Collection of the book debts in this liquidation continued to be difficult, but the substantial total of $8,570,000 was nevertheless collected. As a result of these substantial realizations it proved possible to pay a second dividend of 10% to the unsecured creditors, making a total of 35% now paid in this liquidation. An analysis of the 1,486 debts totalling $97,460,000 outstanding at the end of the year is included in paragraph 126.
Births, Marriages and Deaths
13. The number of births registered in 1969 continued the downward trend from the peak of 115,263 in 1963 and was in fact at 79,329 the lowest total since 1953. For the ninth successive year the birth rate
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