overall decline in all areas except for increases of 343 at Tsuen Wan, 3 at Ma Wan and. 337 at Kam Tin.
149. 494 multiple births were registered in 1964, 487 of twins and 7 of triplets, producing altogether 995 liveborn babies. Only 16 births were registered as illegitimate, as compared with 39 in 1963. The births registered also included 62 foundlings.
150. As from 1st June 1964 the old practice dating back to 1886 of entering the sex of children on the birth registers as male or female was abandoned in favour of the United Kingdom practice of entering 'boy' or 'girl' in the sex column, and this is of course repeated in any birth certificate issued in respect of any such entry.
Post Registration of Births
151. Owing to the absence of facilities for registration in the New Territories until 1932, very few births in the villages were registered before then. In that year facilities were provided for registration at various places in the New Territories, but a great many villagers still neglected to register the births of their children. Under modern conditions a birth certificate has, at least for the young, become practically essential, and for many years past there has been a constant flow of applications to post-register births in the New Territories. To deal with these, three mobile teams have been operating throughout the year, visiting outlying villages according to a regular programme.
152. In addition to the post-registration fee, stamp duty of $3 is payable on each supporting statutory declaration. In the course of the year the three teams collected a total of $19,104 in respect of stamp duty on such declarations.
153. During 1964-65 5,265 births were post-registered more than one year after the date of birth, as follows:
Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon
New Territories
Islands District
Sai Kung District... Tai Po District Tsuen Wan District Yuen Long District
+
:
1,239
307
235
---
2,591
96
797
4,026
5,265
44
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