ENG-1953 — Page 163

JUSTICE, POLICE, PRISONS AND RECORDS

After-Care. The Salvation Army and the Family Welfare Society continued the good work they have been doing in providing after-care for prisoners on discharge.

Records

The Registrar General's department comprises the Land Office and Deeds Registry, the Registry of Marriages, and the offices of the Official Trustee, the Official Solicitor in Lunacy and the Judicial Trustee. In addition, the department dis- charges functions corresponding to certain activities of the Board of Trade in the United Kingdom. These are the Companies Registry, the office of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy and Companies Winding-Up, and the Trade Marks and Patents Office.

Land Office. The function of the Land Office is primarily that of registration of deeds, not registration of title, but by common practice and usage, and due to the form in which Land Office records have been maintained, the system has grown into and become recognized in practice as equivalent to a system of registration of title.

With the continued very heavy demand for land, houses and office accommodation, the Land Office had another busy year, a total of 6,539 instruments affecting land being registered. The total consideration expressed in instruments registered in the financial year 1952/53 was $325,884,172, which is nearly $8,000,000 greater than the comparable figure for 1951/52 and is the highest figure yet recorded.

In the year under review, the Land Office issued 258 new Crown leases and dealt with a large number of sales, grants, exchanges, surrenders and resumptions of land.

Companies. The number of new Companies incorporated in the Colony during 1953 was 204. The number of companies going into voluntary liquidation increased from 43 in 1952,

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