Page 276 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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The sum of Rs. 4,26,892 was paid out to persons attaining their majority, as marriage
expenses for persons under the administration of the department and it includes also the cost
of the department.
Rs. 20,799 was recovered from divers and other persons who owed money to the various
estates which were administered by the department.

General. This department has now been established for 18 years and it has become a
valuable and accepted Bahrain institution. It serves two purposes. Its most important purpose
is to protect the interests of minors and orphans and to administer their property for their
benefit. In the past this was the responsibility of persons who frequently abused their trust
so that by the time the minors reached maturity nothing remained of their patrimony. In this
respect the duty of the department can be likened to that of the Public Trustee. A subsequent
development was the lending of money to the public at reasonable rates of interest, secured
by mortgages on immoveable property in Bahrain, the interest from these loans being paid into
the various estates which arc administered by the department on behalf of minors and orphans.
This arrangement has enabled many small traders and small landowners to obtain funds to
finance commercial or agricultural undertakings on reasonable terms. It is possible however,
that the opening of a local bank in Bahrain, a project which is now under consideration, may
have certain repercussions on the financial activities of this department.

LAND DEPARTMENT
(From the Report of Mr. Abdul Aziz As Saleh, Superintendent of the Land Department).
Land Registration. During the year 1955, 1,139 transactions were dealt with, these
included 668 sales, 268 registration of titles and 203 gifts. Of the sales, 351 were house property,
248 were of open land, 36 were gardens and 17 were shops, 200 of the titles which were registered
were for houses. Nearly 200 more transactions were registered in 1955 than in 1954. Fees on
sales and on registrations amounted to Rs. 2,98,117/-, almost one lakh more than the amount
collected in the previous year. The increase in fees was again due to several important sales
which took place during the year.
Sales and land values. The property which was owned for over 40 years by the firm of
Gray Mackenzie and Co., Ltd., was sold for Rs. 13,40,000 (£100,000) to Mr. Husain bin Ali
i
Yateem, the price was the equivalent of about Rs. 14/- per square foot. A large new office,
built by Gray Mackenzie, was almost completed at the end of the year. It occupies a site
opposite the old office facing the sea, on Government Road, on reclaimed land which was given
to this Company by the Government as compensation when the sea road was built in front of
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: their premises, cutting off* the Gray Mackenzie property from access to the sea. This site became
' what is probably one of the most valuable sites in Bahrain.
A plot of land in Quadabiya was sold for Rs. 2,67,600, at Rs. 4/- per square foot and
another plot, in the same district, on Palace Road, was sold for Rs. 3,23,580, at Rs. 5/- per
square foot; another plot, also in Quadabiya, was sold for Rs. 1,48,999 at Rs. 5/12 per square
foot. A few years ago land in this locality was being sold by the Government at Rs. 1/- per
square foot.

At Hoora, in the district known as Telegraph, a plot of land was sold for Rs. 1,41,980/-,
at Rs. 6/- per square foot.
At Um al Hasam, west of the site of the deep water pier, an old house and some land was
sold for Rs. 200,000/-, at Rs. 2/6 per square foot and a garden near the shore in the same
neighbourhood was sold at Rs. 1/14 per square foot for Rs. 1,20,000. The rise in prices in this
neighbourhood is due to the projected deep water pier.
The total value of property sales during the year was 96 lakhs (£720,000) an increase of
31 lakhs over the previous year.