48

knowledge of the Law, and explaining the
value of the system in their respective neigh-
bourhoods.

By His Excellency's command,
ANDREW SINCLAIR,
Colonial Secretary.

BIRTHS.

Clause 9 of the Registration Ordinance
provides that the father or mother of any
child born, or the occupier of every house
or tenement in the colony of New Zealand
in which any Birth shall happen, shall, un-
der a penalty not exceeding £10, within 42
days give notice of such Birth to the De-
puty Registrar of the district. In case of
any new-born child found exposed, a con-
stable of the district shall forthwith give
information to the Deputy Registrar.

After the expiration of 42 days, at any
time within six calendar months following
the day of the Birth of a child, the Birth
may be registered, provided that the father
or mother, or some person present at the
birth of the child, shall make a solemn de-
claration of the particulars required to be
known. In this case a fee of 10s. 6d. is to
be paid. After six months from the day of
birth, no registration can be lawfully made.
(Clauses 12, 13, 15, 16.)

DEATHS.

The occupier of every house or tenement
in which any death shall happen, is re-
quired, under a penalty not exceeding £10
to give notice within ten days to the De-
puty Registrar of the district. In case of
a dead body being found exposed, the Co-
roner shall forthwith inform the Deputy
Registrar; and in every case in which an
inquest is held, the jury shall inquire into
the particulars required to be registered,
and the Coroner shall inform the Deputy
Registrar of the finding of the Jury.
(Clauses 9, 18.)

The undertaker, or other person having
charge of a funeral, is to deliver to the Of-
ficiating Person or Minister who shall be
required to bury, or to perform any reli-
gious service for the burial of any dead
body, a certificate from the Deputy Regis-
trar that the death has been duly registered.
If a dead body be buried without such cer-
tificate, the person who buries or otherwise
disposes of the body, shall forthwith give
notice to the Deputy Registrar, (An ex-
cepted case is, when the Coroner, upon
holding an inquest, may think fit to give an
order in writing that the body shall be bu-
ried before registry of the death.) Any
person who shall bury, or perform any fu-
neral or religious service for the burial of
a dead body, without a certificate from ei-
ther the Deputy Registrar or the Coroner,
and who shall not within one month give
notice thereof to the Deputy Registrar, shall
forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding £10
for every such offence, to be recovered in a
summary way. (Clauses 21, 22.)

As respects both Births and Deaths,
Clause 10 of the Registration Ordinance
provides that the master or keeper of every
Gaol, Prison, House of Correction or Hos-
pital, or Lunatic Asylum, or Public or
Charitable Institution, shall, for the pur-
poses of this Ordinance, be deemed the oc-
cupier thereof;—and clause 20 provides
that every person by whom information of
a Birth or Death is given, must sign and
attest his name, description, and place of
abode in the Register.

MARRIAGES.

According to the Marriage Ordinance,
"Officiating Ministers" for the purposes of
the Ordinance are those Ministers of reli-
gion whose names have been sent to the
Registrar-General certified under the
hands of the Head or reputed Head, within
the colony, of one of the Religious Bodies
named in Schedule E. annexed to the Or-
dinance. These bodies are, the United
Church of England and Ireland; the Church
of Scotland; the Free Church of Scotland;
all Presbyterian Congregations; the Ro-
man Catholic Church; and the Wesleyan
Methodist Society. The several Heads of
these Bodies shall, upon the suspension or
deprivation of any Minister, forthwith cer-
tify such suspension or deprivation to the
Registrar-General. (Clauses 39-41.)

The Registration Ordinance provides that
every Officiating Minister, or person acting
as such, and every Deputy Registrar, im-
mediately after a Marriage solemnised by
him, or which may have taken place in his
presence, shall register in a book to be kept
for that purpose the several particulars rela-
ting to such Marriage, according to the form
in Schedule C. annexed to the Ordinance.
Refusal or omission without reasonable
cause, to make such registration, is punish-
able by penalty not exceeding £50 for
every such offence. (Clauses 23, 33.)

Every Officiating Minister, or Person, or
Deputy Registrar, before whom any Mar-
riage is solemnised or hath taken place,
shall in the months of January, April, July
and October, respectively, make and deli-
ver to the Registrar-General a true copy,
certified under his hand, of all
the entries of Marriages in the
Register Books kept by him since the
last certificate. If there be no Marriage en-
tered therein since the last certificate he shall
certify the fact under his hand. (Clause
25.) Every person required to make and
deliver such a certified copy or certificate to
the Registrar-General, and who, after being
duly required, shall refuse, or, during one
calender month, neglect to do so, shall be
liable for every such offence to a penalty
not exceeding £10.