the approved estimated revenue of $5,922,200. Details of the Depart- ment's revenue are given in Table XL.
19. On the other hand the Department's actual expenditure was also lower than the approved estimate, the difference between the actual expenditure of $3,962,389 and the approved estimate of $4,269,900 being some $307,000. The main reason for the difference was that for the greater part of the year several vacancies for Legal Assistants and Assistant Registrars remained unfilled. Of course, the $3,962,389 spent does not by any means represent the total cost of the Department. To arrive at that one would have to add the cost of the Government accommodation occupied and a sum representing the value of pensions and other 'fringe' benefits. On the other hand it should be borne in mind that the Marriage and Births and Deaths Registries are as a matter of policy not run on a self-supporting basis, and the fees charged therein represent only a fraction of the cost of running these Registries.
Functions
PART II
LAND OFFICE
20. The Land Office is responsible for the registration of all instru- ments affecting land, the settling and registration of Conditions of Sale, Grant and Exchange of Crown land, the issue, renewal, variation and termination of Crown leases, the granting of Mining Leases, and advising the Government generally on matters relating to land. The District Land Offices in the New Territories are separately administered by the District Commissioner New Territories as Assistant Land Officer, and the figures given in the following paragraphs do not therefore include figures for the New Territories.
Deeds Registration
21. Under the Land Registration Ordinance the Land Office is responsible for the registration of deeds and other instruments relating to land in Hong Kong, Kowloon, portions of New Kowloon, and a few lots in the New Territories which have been exempted from the pro- visions of Part II of the New Territories Ordinance. The Ordinance provides that all such deeds, etc., so registered shall have priority according to the priority of their respective dates of registration, and that with the exception of bona fide leases at rack rents for any term
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