ENG-1964 — Page 186

LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS

159

light fire boats. Plans are in train for augmenting this fleet by four more light fire boats.

The strength of the service is 1,861 of whom 176 are officers, 60 of the latter being expatriates and 116 local officers. Promotion to the higher posts is open to all members of the service.

THE PREVENTIVE SERVICE

The Preventive Service of the Commerce and Industry Department is responsible for suppressing the illicit import and export of narcotics by land, sea or air; the special section responsible for this work absorbing approximately one-third of the total strength of the service. A close liaison on all aspects of narcotics suppression is maintained with the Police Narcotics Bureau.

Preventive Service officers board all vessels arriving in Hong Kong from ports from which drugs are suspected of being smuggled. They remain on board whilst the vessels are in the Colony's waters, to prevent drugs being smuggled ashore. Regular searches are made of these and other ships.

In 1964 a total of 998 ships were guarded throughout their stay in the harbour, 1,204 were searched, and 116 seizures were made of narcotics on ships. The estimated value of narcotics seized by the Preventive Service from all sources in 1964 was $2,086,640. At the airport, the Preventive Service searches incoming aircraft, goods and baggage, particularly those arriving from or which have passed in transit through known sources of narcotics.

RECORDS

The Registrar General's Department comprises the Land Office, the Registries of Births and Deaths, Marriages, Companies, Trade Marks and Patents, the Offices of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy and Companies Winding-up, the Official Trustee, the Judicial Trus- tee, and the Official Solicitor in Lunacy.

The Land Office is a public office for the registration of deeds and other instruments affecting land. The system of registration is broadly similar to that in the Yorkshire Deeds Registries in England. The Land Registration Ordinance provides that all deeds and instruments registered under it shall have priority according to