every year of the deceased's true age. The District Registrars, however, use their best endeavours to ascertain the correct age, and the figures given for the various groups are probably pretty fair approximations. The numbers of deaths in the groups born during the war years reflect the great drop in the population during these years.
Post Registration of Births
73. Until 1932 there were no facilities provided in the New Territories for the registration of births, and anyone wishing to register a birth there had to register it in Hong Kong or Kowloon. The result was that until 1932 very few births in the villages were registered. 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 the fairly static pre-war conditions, whether he had or did not have a birth certificate was of little consequence to the normal villager, but 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 cope with this a mobile team was formed in February 1959, whereupon the flow became a flood, and as stated above two further mobile teams have had to be formed to deal with post-registration. The three teams visit outlying villages according to a regular programme and deal with cases in order of the dates of application except where a certificate is urgently required for a special purpose.
74. The procedure followed by the post-registration team is for the parents of the applicant and supporting witnesses to be interviewed, the information obtained being used to draw up statutory declarations to be declared at a subsequent date. Documentary evidence that the mother was resident in the Colony at the relevant time and of the exact date of birth is called for. Hospital and midwives' records and baptismal certificates are the most satisfactory evidence, but are usually not available. In many cases, however, applicants are able to produce vaccination records showing vaccination shortly after birth. Title deeds to property are frequently produced to help to establish residence. In order to verify the stated date of birth a great variety of documents are produced including old diaries, the genealogies of fisher folk written on pieces of cloth, horoscopes (including pre-marriage horoscopes), and extracts from school records. The papers are sent to Departmental Headquarters where they are carefully scrutinized by a senior officer,
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