The apparently wide fluctuations in 1969 and 1970 call for a word of explanation. The reason is that prior to 1969 deaths by accident or suicide were registered upon the issue of a mortuary return. A con- sequence of this practice was that in some cases deaths were registered before the coronor had obtained death reports, and this sometimes led to the necessity, after the death report had been obtained, of altering the cause of death in the death register. This was not a very satis- factory situation, and in 1969 the practice was changed so that only those deaths were registered where the coroner had either completed his findings or had indicated that he was not calling for a death report. The result of this change in practice was that the number of deaths registered in 1969 was much lower than it would have been had the previous practice been followed. This in turn resulted in a much larger registration figure for accident and suicide deaths in 1970, since it included a large number of cases held over from 1969 pending the coroner's decision.
189. Full statistics of the causes of the deaths registered may be found in Tables 12 and 50 of the Annual Departmental Report of the Director of Medical and Health Services,
Re-registration of Births and Deaths
190. The Births Registration (Special Registers) Ordinance and the Deaths Registration (Special Registers) Ordinance provide for the re- registration of births and deaths recorded in registers destroyed or lost during the Japanese occupation. 70 births were re-registered during the year, and altogether 5,936 births and 66 deaths have now been re- registered under these two Ordinances.
Air Register Book of Births and Deaths
191. By virtue of section 2(4) of the Civil Aviation (Births, Deaths and Missing Persons) Ordinance the Registrar of Births and Deaths is obliged to maintain an Air Register Book of Births and Deaths and to file therein certain records relating to births and deaths occur- ring in any part of the world in, or during a journey in any aircraft registered in Hong Kong. During the year one birth was recorded in respect of a boy born between Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. One death was recorded as having taken place in an aircraft between Taipei and Tokyo, and 81 deaths were recorded in respect of a crash on 15th June 1972 over Vietnam.
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