Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1961-1962 — Page 42

Fees

97. The fees collected during the year amounted to the new record total of $243,802, $11,343 more than in 1960-61. Particulars are given in Table XXXII.

PART VIII

OFFICIAL RECEIVER IN BANKRUPTCY AND

Explanatory

COMPANIES WINDING UP

98. The Bankruptcy Ordinance (Cap. 6) and the Rules made there- under follow with some variations the English Bankruptcy legislation. The law relating to the winding up of companies by the Court is contained in the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 32) and the Companies (Winding-Up) Rules made thereunder, which are based respectively on the Companies Act, 1929, formerly in force in Great Britain, and the Winding-up Rules thereunder.

New Cases

99. In 1961-62, as in the past few years, the numbers of bankruptcies and compulsory liquidations were remarkably small in relation to the population and the enormous number of businesses in Hong Kong (the Business Registration Office had 78,026 files open as at 31st March 1962). The number of bankruptcies is kept down for a variety of reasons: in the first place, there is a provision in the Ordinance empowering the court to dismiss a petition where it is not satisfied that the assets available for division among the unsecured creditors, after payment of the preferential debts and all expenses, will be sufficient to pay a dividend of 15 per cent; secondly, the costs of a petition are high and usually not all recoverable out of the assets; and thirdly, in many cases most of the assets of a debtor in financial difficulties have been given in security so that not infrequently no dividend is payable to non- preferential creditors. As for debtors' petitions, they are not popular partly because the Chinese as a race are reluctant to become involved with the authorities if they can help it, and partly because a petition always spells trouble and frequently results in a prosecution. Moreover, debtors rarely have enough free assets to satisfy the 15 per cent rule already mentioned.

100. Twelve bankruptcy petitions were presented during the year as against eleven in 1960-61. Three were withdrawn, two were dismissed by the court, and one was pending at the end of the year. Two Orders

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