J 2
5. 39 cases of deaths in unusual circumstances were reported to the Police Magistrate as Coroner during the year. Four Death Inquiries were held. There was a slight decrease in the number of Small Debts cases heard, but an increase in the number of cases in which action by distraint had to be taken to enforce the Court's decision.
LAND AND GENERAL.
6. Complete details of the work of the Land Office are shown in Table IX. In the Land Registry 3010 memorials were registered as compared with 3291 in 1933 and the amount of stamp duty received for such registration was $3,982.90 as against $5,121.40 in 1933. In almost all cases the deeds and memorials in English and Chinese are filled in by the clerical staff of the department for the parties on the prescribed forms, a procedure which throws a great deal of work on the staff, but is well worth while, encouraging as it does registration, upon which the efficiency of the land and small debts administration largely depends.
7. It is hard to give any particular reason for the decrease in the sales of Crown Land, for in any one year an exceptional circumstance like the sale of a large piece of land to a Hong Kong interest may make a large increase in the receipts, which may not be repeated in the following year. More Crown Rent than ever before was paid in 1934, which might show that development is steady, despite temporary slackening in the rate of progress; and of course as development proceeds the amount of land available for development decreases, though we may be still a long way off saturation point.
8. Most striking is the way in which the Yuen Long market town is growing. Here during the year some 40 large new shops and family houses facing wide roads have been erected to a regular lay-out plan on a large area reclaimed from the creek to the North of the town. Further reclamation seems probable here in the near future. Development in lay-out areas of course involves Government on recurrent expenditure for the maintenance of roads etc. and all such areas will eventually have to be included in the rating scheme proposed for 1935. The work of laying a main water supply to Yuen Long was almost completed by the Public Works Department and the supply should be available in 1935.
9. In the Tai Po Market area there was a normal amount of building development and a new block of houses was completed fronting the Main Road.
10. One or two large European style houses were in process of erection during the year near the Main Road in the Fanling and Yuen Long-Castle Peak areas.