Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1971-1972 — Page 74

214. On 7th February 1972 the new Governor, Sir Murray MACLEHOSE, K.C.M.G., M.B.E., visited the Departmental Headquarters, the Land Office and the principal Marriage Registry at the City Hall, where he witnessed a marriage being solemnized.

215. On 12th February 1972 Mr. J. C. D. LAWRENCE, O.B.E., Land Tenure Adviser to the Overseas Development Administration in the United Kingdom, paid a visit to the Land Office, where he was shown the registration system, including the sub-divisional card system, in which he had expressed a particular interest.

Lectures

216. During the year several Solicitors and an Assistant Registrar of the Department gave a number of lectures on the law relating to Companies and Bankruptcy to members of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force and final-year students of the Hong Kong Technical College.

Staff

217. One Senior Solicitor, Mr. S. D. OATES, and four Solicitors, Mr. P. F. GRINDEY, Mr. R. H. CHECKLEY, Mr. N. JAMES and Mr. R. H. HENDERSON, left the Department during the year. As no replacements were obtained despite advertisements in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, the Department was at the end of the year six short of its establishment of Solicitors.

218. During the year two Solicitors, Mr. P. W. MOLE and Mr. P. C. Dowson, were promoted to Senior Solicitor, and three Assistant Registrars Class II, Mr. WONG Sik-ham, Mr. FONG Kan-yung and Mr. LAI Ming-chi, were promoted to Class I.

Photographic Section

219. The Department has a Photographic Section equipped with a Photostat machine Model 4 Type P, capable of copying plans, documents, registers, etc. up to four feet by three feet in size, and a Rank Xerox 720 Copier for copying documents, etc. up to nine inches by fourteen inches. Requests for copies of documents continued to increase, and during the year 97,197 copies of documents, etc. were made, as compared with 93,374 in the previous year. Most of the copies were made for the use of the Department and other Government Departments, but fees were collected in respect of copies of public records supplied to the public.

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