ENG-1951 — Page 101

The respective District Officers sit in the market towns of Yuen Long and Taipo. They also hear debts cases.

While the situation as regards serious crime gives cause for some satisfaction the same cannot be said for lesser crime, and the Magistracies in Hong Kong and Kowloon have had to deal with 20 per cent more cases than in 1950, 201,377 prosecutions having been dealt with as compared with last year's 167,976. Many convictions were registered against persons who had arrived from China only a few weeks, or even days, before committing the offence for which they were charged. This indicates that although the overall population figure has not risen during the year refugees have continued to enter the Colony in some numbers, counteracting in the population figure the decline which would have otherwise been registered due to the gradual return of Chinese families to their homeland.

PUBLIC RECORDS

The Registrar General's Department, which was established under the Registrar General (Establishment) Ordinance and has its offices on the ground floor of the Supreme Court Building, incorporates the Land Office and Deeds Registry, the Registry of Marriages, the Companies Registry, the Trade Marks and Patents Registry, and the Offices of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy and the Official Trustee.

Land Office

The principal function of the Land Office is the registration of instruments affecting land in Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon. Legally, it is a registry of deeds, not of title, but due to the form in which the records have been maintained over a long period, great reliance is in practice placed on the accuracy of the land Registers, as showing the devolution of title.

All land in private ownership is held under lease from the Crown. The terms vary considerably. Originally, the normal term of lease was 999 years, and much of the most valuable land in Victoria is held on such leases. Except in New Kowloon and the New Territories, the normal term nowadays is 75 years, renewable for a further 75. In New Kowloon and the New Territories the normal term is 75 years from 1st July 1898, renewable for a further 24 years less the last three days, this limitation being required because these areas are merely held on lease from China for a period of 99 years expiring on 30th June 1997. In the last century, many leases of lots in Kowloon were issued for non- renewable terms of 75 years, and 49 of these, now comprising 246 separate properties, expired in 1951.

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