Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1960-1961 — Page 23

kong and Shanghai Bank Building at 664 Nathan Road, Mong Kok, took over additional accommodation giving it a total area of 2,673 square feet comprising a large general office, the Deputy Registrar's office, two marriage rooms and a waiting room.

60. In addition, as from 25th April, 1960, 'part-time' marriage registries were, thanks to the ready co-operation of the bodies providing the accommodation, opened at Aberdeen and Shau Kei Wan and in the New Territories as follows:

Registry

Aberdeen

Shau Kei Wan

Tsuen Wan

Tai Po Market

Yuen Long

Cheung Chau

Location

Kaifong Welfare Advancement Association's Office, 7,

Tung Sing Street, Aberdeen.

Kaifong Welfare Advancement Association's Office,

Main Street West, Shau Kei Wan.

Until 29th June, 1960, Tsuen Wan Rural Committee Office; thereafter the office occupied by the Tsuen Wan District Birth Registry in the new Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building at Tsuen Wan.

Sai Kung (North) Rural Committee Office. District Office.

Cheung Chau Chinese Chamber of Commerce Office.

These Registries are open for the acceptance of notices of marriages and the performance of marriages one day a week each except for the Cheung Chau Registry which functions two days a month. The first two marriages at Cheung Chau took place on 12th July, 1960 when the occasion was suitably celebrated by the explosion of firecrackers donated by the local Chamber of Commerce.

61. Notices of marriage given at the foregoing Registries are, besides being exhibited at the Registry where given, exhibited at the principal Marriage Registry in the Supreme Court Building in Hong Kong where records of all the marriages are also kept. This Registry is itself scheduled to move in 1961-62 into spacious new accommodation in the High Block of the City Hall.

62. Under Section 22(3)(b) of the Ordinance, where the Registrar is satisfied that he and the parties and witnesses all understand the Chinese language or the same dialect thereof, the marriage may be celebrated wholly in that language or dialect, and the majority of Registry marriages are now celebrated in Chinese without an inter- preter. For the convenience of the parties the form of marriage certifi- cate now incorporates a Chinese translation of the printed English text. The certificate is, however, completed in English only.

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