aggregate of mortgage considerations exceeded $1,000,000,000, reaching $1,160,457,000.
10. The continued intensive land sales programme of the Crown Lands Office resulted in Conditions of Sale of 255 lots of Crown land being put through, of which 249 related to lots sold by auction and 6 to lots sold by tender. However, the number of Conditions of Regrant put through dropped from 429 to 217, the majority of the 75 year non- renewable leases in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon having now been dealt with.
Companies, Trade Marks and Patents
11. As in the four preceding years a record number of new companies were incorporated, the total being at 1,251, 102 up on the 1962-63 figure. As in 1962-63 land and building companies were by far the largest cate- gory, although this year the number dropped by 36 to 401. Such com- panies are mainly one project companies, formed specially for a single venture, the construction of a multi-storey building and its immediate disposal by selling off the individual units therein. The number of trade marks applications for the first time crossed the 2,000 mark to reach 2,151, and patent registrations advanced by 27 to 176.
Bankruptcies and Liquidations
12. There were altogether 17 cases in which Receiving, Administra- tion, or Winding-up Orders were made, 5 more than in 1962-63. There were, of course, many other business failures, but for a variety of reasons creditors usually do not institute bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings. In the first place, there is a provision in the Bankruptcy Ordinance em- powering 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 percent; 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.
Births, Marriages and Deaths
13. New records were set up in the numbers of births and marriages registered, but otherwise there were few significant changes in the volume and nature of work performed by the Registries. Marriage facilities were, however, further improved by the opening of three new full-time
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