Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1962-1963 — Page 22

Card Index of Owners and Mortgagees

44. Besides complete card indexes to all lots and sections of lots, the Land Office maintains an index, not open to the public, of all persons registered as the ownor or mortgagee of land in the Colony. According to this the number of landowners (excluding mortgagees) rose by 6,617 during the year to a total of 69,023 on 31st March 1963. Many of these own several proporties, many simply a small undivided share in a property coupled with the right to a flat or part of a flat. The total cannot be taken as completely accurate since it is possible that the holdings of two people with identical names, both in Romanized form and in Chinese characters, may be on the same card.

Safe Custody of Deeds, Wills, etc.

45. Under Section 22 of the Land Registration Ordinance deeds, wills, etc., may be deposited in the Land Office for safe custody. A fee of $15 is normally payable in respect of each document so deposited, but where two or more instruments relate to the same property the charge is $15 for the first instrument and $2 for each additional instrument. Only two deposits were made during the year.

Liaison with Legal Profession

46. From time to time the Land Office issues Circular Memoranda to all Solicitors on matters of land policy and Land Office Practice. During the year six such Memoranda, being Nos. 9 to 14 in the series, were issued. New Solicitors are supplied with back numbers on request.

Crown Rents

47. Tables V and VI give details of the numbers of lots on the Principal and Village Rent Rolls. The number of lots on the Principal Rent Roll has increased by 353 to 21,184, and the total Crown rent by $312,656 to $2,693,258.10. The principal increases are of 77 Inland Lots on Hong Kong Island, 50 Kowloon Marine Lots (due mainly to the splitting of a large lot), 97 New Kowloon Inland Lots, and 108 Kwun Tong Inland Lots.

48. The number of lots on the Village Rent Roll continues slowly to dwindle, the total of 1,306 being fourteen less than last year. The remaining lots produce only $1,041.70 per annum, most of the rents being less than $1. In order to reduce the cost of collection, Demand Notes for rents of less than $5 per annum are now issued every five years instead of annually.

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