Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1972-1973 — Page 71

the Recognized Stock Exchanges Order 1972, by which the Kowloon Stock Exchange Limited was recognized for the purposes of the Companies Ordinance.

Births and Deaths

205. Under the Adoption (Amendment) Ordinance 1972 an adop- tion in Hong Kong after the 31st December 1972 may be effected only in accordance with the provisions of the Adoption Ordinance. The status or rights of a person adopted in Hong Kong under Chinese law and custom before that date are not affected in any way.

206. Prior to the enactment of the Perjury (Amendment) Ordinance 1972 a prosecution on indictment for the offence of giving a false statement in connection with the registration of births or deaths could not be commenced more than three years after the commission of the offence, although the falsity of statements and informations often did not come to light before the expiration of the limitation period. The Ordinance repealed the subsection containing the limitation so that prosecutions can now be instituted whenever the offence is discovered.

207. The Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 1972 amended section 24(2) of the principal Ordinance so as to provide that an entry in a post register book made on or after the 1st January 1972 should have the same evidential value as an entry in the normal register. Accordingly, every entry and every certified copy of an entry in a birth or death register book may be received as evidence of the birth or death to which it relates without other or further proof of such entry.

208. The Law Revision (Miscellaneous Amendments) Ordinance 1972 contained a minor amendment to the Cremation and Gardens of Remembrance Regulations in that the reference to the Registrar General in the medical certificate at Form 2 in the Regulations was deleted.

209. The Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 1972 and the Births and Deaths Registration (Amend- ment of First Schedule) (No. 2) Order 1972 made certain consequential amendments to the First Schedule to the principal Ordinance following upon the opening of the Sheung Shui Births Registry and a new combined registry at San Po Kong and a re-organization of the births and deaths registries for Kowloon.

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