ENG-1974 — Page 134

LAND AND HOUSING

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not guarantee it. The ordinance is under review and changes in the system may be recommended.

The number of instruments registered in the Land Office during the year dropped by 11.6 per cent from last year's total of 96,366 to 85,182. More detailed statistics with comparisons with previous years are contained in Appendix 28.

At the end of the year the card index of property owners contained the names of 251,273 people (an increase of 14,159 over the previous year), some owning several properties, but most being owners or part owners of small individual flats.

Urban Renewal and Environmental Improvement

In the Urban Renewal Pilot Scheme area, more than 80 properties were acquired by negotiation or resumption during the financial year 1973-4 at a cost of more than $16 million. A total of 304 properties have been acquired, and a further 61 remain. Some 50 pre-war properties were demolished during the year, and domestic tenants requiring alternative accommodation were rehoused. Further progress was also made in acquiring properties for the provision of open space and government institutional and community facilities in the densely populated urban areas of Western District, Wan Chai and Yau Ma Tei. More than $43 million was spent in the financial year 1973-4 on a total of 78 properties.

Resumption

To enable public works projects to proceed it is sometimes necessary to resume privately owned land. During the financial year 1973-4, resumption boards-con- stituted under the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance awarded more than $25 million in compensation. Most older roads are subject to widening lines which are implemented as and when properties fronting the road are redeveloped. During the year, negotiations carried out to acquire land for road widening involved compensa- tion payments of more than $8 million, although in many of the cases a free surrender was obtained. At the end of 1974 the new Lands Tribunal Ordinance came into opera- tion. It provides for the establishment of a permanent Tribunal to adjudicate on all statutory claims to compensation in respect of land. Consequential amendments had to be made to the relevant ordinances, including the Crown Lands Resumption Ordin- ance, to adapt procedures to the new Tribunal. At the same time a Mass Transit (Land Acquisition and Related Matters) Ordinance was enacted to provide for the special land acquisition problems of the mass transit railway. Claims under this ordin- ance will also be adjudicated on by the new Lands Tribunal.

Survey

Land surveying in Hong Kong serves three main purposes-the establishment and maintenance of a system of control points (for position and height) on which all surveys are based; the setting out of public works and delineation of boundaries of private lots and government sites, such as cadastral surveys; and the production of maps and plans for both government and private use.