ENG-1955 — Page 281

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Cooperative and Marketing Department.

Other Departments include the Fire Brigade, under its Chief Officer, providing efficient fire protection throughout the urban zones and in the larger New Territories towns, and equipped with land and sea transport. The Stores Department, under a Controller, buys and distributes government stores and administers the Government's monopoly of sand. The Printing Department is responsible for all government publications, most of which are produced entirely in the Department itself. The Quartering Authority deals with accommodation for Civil Servants and for Government Departments.

New Territories Administration

The New Territories are divided into three administrative districts Yuen Long in the north-west, Taipo in the north- east, and the Southern District, which besides the southern and S.E. part of the mainland includes Lantao, Cheung Chau, Lamma, and the other islands around Hong Kong. The District Commissioner, with an office in Kowloon and official residence near Taipo, coordinates the administration of the New Territories, each district being under a District Officer. There is now a Resident Magistrate for the New Territories. District Officers hold land and small debt courts, and arbitrate in all kinds of disputes, including family and matrimonial cases; they control Crown land and buildings, register docu- ments and deeds relating to private land, assess and collect stamp duty, and administer a vote for small public works undertaken by villagers to improve irrigation, water supplies and communications. Close cooperation is maintained between the Administration and all other Departments with interests in the New Territories.

District Officers have the assistance of Rural Committees, elected by and from village representatives, and exercising various functions by delegation. Although these committees have no statutory existence or powers, they have already proved their usefulness as mouthpieces of public opinion, in the arbitration of clan and family disputes, and generally as a bridge between the Administration and the people. The New Territories is covered by a network of 28 Rural Committees.