Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1965-1966 — Page 8

and Wage Change Index for Selected Industries in March 1966, taking 1958 as the base year 100, the overall index for the industries, dockyards and utilities covered by it rose 15 points over 1965 to 188, with the textile, manufacturing, and utility and dockyard indices rising by 17, 14 and 18 points respectively to 184, 192 and 154. On the other hand, the retail price index, although it had risen in November 1965 to 132, had fallen again by March 1966 to 129, at which level it was only 2 points up on the figure for March 1965. As compared with a year before the note circulation had increased by nearly $118,000,000 to $1,624,179,000 on 31st March 1966, and despite the severe shake-out caused by the banking crisis (see paras. 5 to 8), total deposits with banks were over $1,249,000,000 up at $7,626,673,000. During the year the numbers of motor cycles licensed increased from 9,376 to 9,860, of private motor cars from 51,684 to 54,900, and of drivers licensed from 165,748 to 184,188. Finally, although sales of units (mostly flats) in sub-divided buildings did not quite reach last year's record total of 18,968, the drop was only 408 to 18,560, which was the second highest total ever recorded, while the number of landowners recorded in the Land Office rose by 15,789, bringing the total to 113,570 (see Table VI).

4. The effects of the banking crisis were, however, felt in other directions. Assignments of lots or sections of lots were at 688 almost halved, the number of re-entries by the Crown increased almost fourfold to 45, and the number of Exclusion Orders, which are usually a prelude to re-development, fell sharply from 838 to 148. Companies winding-up petitions numbered 19, the same as the previous year, but bankruptcy petitions were up by 23 to 38, a post-war record, although considering that there were 108,141 businesses registered with the Business Regis- tration Office on 31st March 1966 the total was not large. On the other hand, the number of companies registered was, at 1,286, the second highest annual figure on record, and the number of patents registered, 286, created yet another new record. There was a very marked increase in the number of marriages registered, up by almost 25%, but there were quite substantial declines, not unwelcome, in the numbers of births and deaths registered. The estimated population at the end of 1965 was at 3,823,200 only 83,300 more than that at the end of 1964.

The Banking Crisis

5. The troubles in the banking world that had first become apparent in January 1965 continued into the year under review. On 9th April 1965 fresh rumours touched off another run on the Hang Seng Bank

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