8. All appointments previously made by the Governor to Certain any of the offices specified in the Schedule including any appoint- appoint- ment as Deputy or Assistant thereto shall be deemed to have ceased to have had effect as from the expiration of the 31st of March, have effect. 1949.
SCHEDULE.
ments to
cease to
Land Officer.
Registrar of Companies.
Registrar of Trade Marks and Designs.
Registrar of Patents.
Registrar of Marriages.
Official Receiver in Bankruptcy.
Official Trustee.
Objects and Reasons.
1. In the interests of efficiency and economy it is proposed to create the post of Registrar General. In accordance with the practice in other Colonies the Registrar General will be responsible for the discharge of the duties of the following offices: —
2.
(a) the Land Officer;
(b) the Registrar of Companies;
(c) the Registrar of Trade Marks & Designs;
(d) the Registrar of Patents;
(e) the Registrar of Marriages;
(f) the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy;
(g) the Official Trustee.
It is
Functions (b), (c), (d), (f) and (g) are at present discharged by the Registrar of the Supreme Court assisted by a Deputy Registrar. proposed that henceforth the Registrar of the Supreme Court shall, without the aid of a Deputy, discharge the functions of Registrar of the Supreme Court and Official Administrator and also such of the functions normally discharged by a Master of the Supreme Court in England as the Chief Justice may delegate to him.
3. The officer now discharging the duties of Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court will thus be available together with officers now acting as Assistant Land Officers and other legal officers to fill three appointments as Deputies to the Registrar General. The existing post of Land Officer, as
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a salaried post, will disappear, being merged in the new post of Registrar General. The Registrar General and his Deputies will discharge all the duties enumerated under heads (a) to (g) inclusive in paragraph 1 of these Objects and Reasons.
4. The object of the Bill is to give legislative effect to the proposals above described, while leaving undisturbed (clause 5) the structure of the law (e.g. the New Territories Regulation Ordinance, 1910, and the Companies Ordinance, 1932) which provide independently for the various offices enumerated above and for deputies and assistants to such offices.
5. It has been considered desirable to bring these changes into effect as from the beginning of the financial year. Clause 7 of the Bill accordingly gives the Ordinance retrospective effect from the 1st of April, 1949, and clauses 7 and 8 are designed to prevent overlapping of appointments and enable the officers who will now administer the various Ordinances to discharge their duties as from the 1st of April, 1949.
J. B. GRIFFIN,
Attorney General.
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