Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1964-1965 — Page 17

Searches

30. An essential preliminary to every land transaction is a search in the land registers to ascertain who is registered as the owner of the property and what, if any, incumbrances are registered against it. Under the Land Registration Fees (Amendment) Regulations 1963, a fee of $1 is payable for each record produced, but where more than one hundred records relating to the same sub-divided building are produced at the same time the maximum fee is $100. To facilitate the operation of this system, books of one hundred $1 search tickets are available for purchase by solicitors, whose clerks surrender one ticket for each record produced.

31. During the year, 46,594 searches were made by members of the public, 7,911 (17%) less than the previous year's record total. The vast majority of these searches were made by solicitors' clerks who are familiar with the Land Office system of keeping the registers. In addition, thousands of searches were made for Government departments either by their own or by the Land Office staff.

Stamp Duty

32. Due mainly to the increase in assignment considerations the total amount of stamp duty paid on instruments registered rose by more than $2,000,000 over the 1963-64 figure to a new all time record of $44,765,835.

Land Tenure

33. With the exception of St. John's Cathedral all land in the Colony is held leasehold from the Crown. In the very early days of the Colony, Crown leases were granted for 75 years, but in 1849 the term was extended to 999 years, and much of the most valuable land in the centre of the city is held on leases for that term. The 75-year non-renewable lease did not however entirely drop out of use, and from 1875 onwards large numbers were granted mainly for lots on the Peak and in Kowloon. The practice of granting 999-year leases was discontinued in 1898, since when leases of land in the ceded areas have been granted for 75-year terms, usually with the right of renewal for a further 75 years at a reas- sessed rent. Exceptionally, leases of the lots in the Praya East Reclamation carried out in the 1920s are for 99 years renewable for 99 years. Crown leases for lots in the New Territories were until 1959 granted for a term of 75 years from 1st July 1898, renewable for 24 years less the last three

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