ENG-1956 — Page 242

LAW AND ORDER

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together take 200 boys, all of whom would probably have gone to prison before the inception of the scheme. There is a full-time After-Care Officer to look after those released. Of 122 boys so far released from the two centres only 8 have been recalled or reconvicted. 121 boys were accepted during the year, the daily average population being 184.

The staff of the Prisons Department consists of II gazetted officers, 482 other ranks, and 142 others, including school- masters, instructors, clerks, storekeepers and mechanics.

RECORDS

The Registrar General's Department, situated in the Supreme Court building, comprises the Land Office, the Registries of Marriages, Companies, Trade Marks and Patents, and the Offices of the Official Receiver in Bank- ruptcy and Companies Winding Up, the Official Trustee, the Judicial Trustee, and the Official Solicitor in Lunacy.

Land. The principal function of the Land Office is the registration of all instruments affecting land in Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon; instruments affecting land in the New Territories (other than New Kowloon) being registered in one or other of the three District Offices. Although the system of registration under the Land Registra- tion Ordinance is basically one of registration of deeds and not of title, the Land Office Registers do in fact show in a clear and accurate manner the devolution of title to each lot, or section of a lot, and details of all incumbrances affecting it. The result is that in practice the system is regarded as virtually equivalent to registration of title. Land tenure is described in the Chapter on Production.

Among the other functions of the Land Office are the issue, renewal, variation and termination of title to all Crown land in the Colony other than in the New Territories, the granting of mining leases, and advising the Government generally on matters relating to land.