It has now been decided that the department will send corporate Christmas greetings through newspaper advertisements. Individual officers can of course also include words of greeting in business memo and letters during the festive season.
"We cannot be sure how much paper we will save but we believe it is definitely a move in the right direction," Mr Dale said.
The Marine Department actively pursues green office practices and is continuing looking for environmentally friendly changes to its systems.
Mr Dale hopes his department's initiative will raise the public awareness of being more environmental friendly, particularly during the festive season.
"Not only is paper saved. Just imagine the secretaries' time that is saved using electronic typewriters or computers to prepare the cards for sending.
"It may be a drop in the ocean in terms of the world as a whole but nevertheless is saving some of our natural resources," he said.
The Marine Department will publish corporate Christmas greetings in some local newspapers nearer to Christmas but will continue this year at least to send cards to overseas contacts as they will not have access to local newspapers.
"We are looking at other alternatives to greet our overseas clients, on internet perhaps, when it becomes more accessible to a wider audience," Mr Dale said.
End/Wednesday, September 27, 1995
Changes of office hours for collection of BN(O) passports
The working hours of the Travel Documents (Passport) Section of some Immigration offices will be revised with effect from next Monday (October 2) to facilitate the collection of BN(O) passports.
A spokesman for the Immigration Department said today (Wednesday) the change of office hours would be applicable at the Immigration Headquarters in Wan Chai and nine Immigration branch offices.
The revised arrangements for the collection of BN(Q) passports will be as
follows: