substantial total of $9,860,000 was collected, which enabled repayment to be made to the Government of the remaining $4,000,000 of the original $22,500,000 advanced to enable a first dividend of 25% to be paid to the unsecured creditors. An analysis of the 1,684 debts totalling $109,140,000 outstanding at the end of the year is included in paragraph 124.
Births, Marriages and Deaths
13. The number of births registered in 1968 continued the down- ward trend from the peak of 115,263 in 1963, and was in fact at 82,992 the lowest total since 1953. For the eight successive year the birth rate fell, the 1968 rate of 21.14 per 1,000 of population being 1.86 below the figure for 1967. As will be seen from the comparative rates given in paragraph 162, the Hong Kong rate is well below the estimates of 38 for Asia and 34 for the World, and is now only fractionally larger than the rate of 21.1 in Ireland. 2,193 births were post-registered more than one year after birth, and 170 entries made in the Adopted Children Register.
14. A new record number of 20,492 marriages were registered under the Marriage Ordinance, 3,598 more than the year before, and 2,646 more than the previous record total of 17,846 set in 1966-67. In 2,125 cases out of the 20,492 the couples had previously been married to each other by customary ceremonies of one kind or another, so that the number of 'new' marriages was really 18,367, an increase of 3,823 from last year's figure of 14,544. The year's total comprised 1,811 marriages at 133 licensed places of worship and 18,681 marriages at Marriage Registries. In addition to these registered marriages there will have been many thousands of non-Christian customary marriages celebrated according to the personal law and religion of the parties. No records of such customary marriages are available, but it is now estimated that they account for less than one third of all marriages celebrated in the Colony. So far as registered marriages are concerned the trend for girls to marry younger regained momentum with an increase of 675 to 4,769 in the number of girls marrying under 21. There was an increase of 312 to 1,376 in the number of marriages performed in New Territories Registries. This is more than six times as many as in 1960-61 when the Registries were opened.
15. 19,319 deaths were registered, 325 less than in 1967. This, together with the increase in population, resulted in a .18 drop in the crude death rate to 4.92 per 1,000 of population, which is probably
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