M 194
APPENDIX H.
REPORT OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
The Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance of 1896, which up to 1911 applied only to the Colony Proper, was in the latter year extended to cover the New Territories.
2. Though applicable to the New Territories little action was taken to enforce compliance with the law until 1932 when the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services became Registrar. In the island of Cheung Chau and in the Police District of Tai O there was a considerable number of registrations but elsewhere in the New Territories there were very few and the Ordinance was more or less a dead letter.
3. In 1932 it was decided to make an attempt to persuade the inhabitants of the New Territories to comply with the law. The results of persuasion were negligible and it was therefore decided to prosecute for failure to comply. Prosecutions had the desired effect, and registration for the first time became the rule rather than the exception.
4. The paucity of registrations has previously made it impossible to calculate death rates and birth rates for the New Territories, but this year more reliable statistics are available.
5. During the past year a new Births and Deaths Ordinance (Ordinance No. 21 of 1934), was passed and whereas the machinery for the registration of Births and Deaths was formerly somewhat complicated, it is felt that the new ordinance has made registration an easier and a less complicated affair.
6. The new ordinance has already caused a marked increase in birth registrations in the whole Colony, particularly in the New Territories. It is hoped that next year's figures will show a further increase.
7. Formerly Chinese could register births and deaths in the district in which they were living but non-Chinese wherever resident were obliged to register at the Registrar's General Register Office in Victoria. This has now been altered, and births and deaths of whatever nationality may be registered at any District Registry.
M 194
APPENDIX H.
REPORT OF THE REGISTRAR GENERAL OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
The Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance of 1896, which up to 1911 applied only to the Colony Proper, was in the latter year extended to cover the New Territories.
2. Though applicable to the New Territories little action was taken to enforce compliance with the law until 1932 when the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services became Registrar. In the island of Cheung Chau and in the Police District of Tai O there was a considerable number of registrations but else- where in the New Territories there were very few and the Ordinance was more or less a dead letter.
3. In 1932 it was decided to make an attempt to persuade the inhabitants of the New Territories to comply with the law. The results of persuasion were negligible and it was therefore decided to prosecute for failure to comply. Prosecutions had the desired effect, and registration for the first time became the rule rather than the exception.
4. The paucity of registrations has previously made it impossible to calculate death rates and birth rates for the New Territories, but this year more reliable statistics are available.
5. During the past year а new Births and Deaths Ordinance (Ordinance No. 21 of 1934), was passed and whereas the machinery for the registration of Births and Deaths was formerly somewhat complicated, it is felt that the new ordi- nance has made registration an easier and a less complicated affair.
6. The new ordinance has already caused a marked in- crease in birth registrations in the whole Colony, particularly in the New Territories. It is hoped that next year's figures will show a further increase.
7. Formerly Chinese could register births and deaths in the district in which they were living but non-Chinese wherever resident were obliged to register at the Registrar's General Register Office in Victoria. This has now been altered, and births and deaths of whatever nationality may be registered at any District Registry.
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