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RECORDS ETC. OF THE COURTS AND CERTAIN OFFICES.
3. (a) The records of the Supreme Court in all its jurisdictions (with the exception of a few of the Judge's note- books and some bankruptcy files) have completely disappeared. Perhaps the most serious losses in this direction are those of (i) all original ordinances since the foundation of the Colony and (ii) all Wills proved in the Colony.
(b) No trace can be found of any of the records of the Registrar of Companies, the Official Trustee, the Official Administrator or the Registrar of Marriages. The Registers of Bills of Sales and of Money Lenders and of newspapers have also disappeared.
(c) All the Seals of the Court in its various juris- dictions have disappeared. I did, however, find the seal of the Registrar of Marriages buried under a mass of rubbish and the Mace of the Supreme Court has been found in the vaults of the Chase Bank.
(d) The statutory plans (e.g. New Territories Districts, reservations areas etc) have disappeared.
(e) The safe containing Government Securities (mortgages) had been rifled and the contents have gone and the same applies to the strong box containing securities held by the Official Trustee.
I have not yet had the opportunity of asking the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation whether it has traced any of the bearer bonds held for safe custody for the Official Trustee etc. I understand that the Bank has found its securities registeres but the receipts given by the bank to the 0.T. have gone.
Interrogation of the staff leads to the belief that all the foregoing records were simply thrown out of the building and burnt or picked up and used by hawkers or pulped. The chances of recovery seem remote, but I do not wholly despair of tracing some records.
RECORDS OF THE LAND OFFICE
4. Against this gloomy background stands out in high relief the position with regard to the Land Office Records, which are all important to the Crown.
Some of the Land Office clerks retained their jobs under the Japanese and from these men and from other sources we have been able to trace the whereabouts of substantially the whole of the Hong Kong Land Office records and of the records of the Land Office instituted by the Japanese these cover the island of Hong Kong, Kowloon and that part of the New Territory (Urban) known as New Kowloon.
Clearance of our own repositories, shortage of transport and the heavy rains this week have held up the work of returning the records to the Land Office, but, using every type of vehicle from a small saloon car to a break-down lorry (which broke down after one trip) we have now got the whole lot to the Land Office including the Japanese records - and (except in so far as destruction of shelvings etc. has prevented) all are now in place.
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