ENG-1958 — Page 380

CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION

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fire cover for the Colony. The Brigade comprises 809 officers and other ranks, with 60 mobile fire appliances, 3 fire boats and 20 ambulances.

The Stores Department, under a Controller, buys and distributes Government stores, manufactures and repairs all furniture for offices and quarters, and administers the Government monopoly of sand. The Printing Department, under the Government Printer, 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 Government departments.

New Territories Administration. The New Territories are divided into four administrative districts; Yuen Long in the north-west, Tai Po in the north-east, Tsuen Wan which includes the industrial town of Tsuen Wan, the islands of Tsing Yi and Ma Wan and part of north-east Lantau, and the Southern district which includes all the remaining islands and the southern part of the Sai Kung peninsula. Each of the four districts is administered by a District Officer. The District Office for Yuen Long is at Ping Shan and that for Tai Po is at Tai Po Market. The two other District Offices are at present situated in Kowloon. The District Commis- sioner, with an office in Kowloon and headquarters staff under an Assistant District Commissioner, co-ordinates the overall adminis- tration of the New Territories. There is also a Resident Magistrate, who is a legal officer, 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 documents 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 co-operation is maintained between the Administration and all other depart- ments with interests in the New Territories.

District Officers have the assistance of Rural Committees, elected by and from village representatives, and exercising various advisory functions. Although these committees have no statutory or executive 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