ENG-1970 — Page 289

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POPULATION

BIRTHS AND DEATHS

The registration of births and deaths is compulsory, and facilities for registration are provided throughout the Colony. The General Register Office is situated at Li Po Chun Chambers, Connaught Road Central, Victoria, where all records of births and deaths are maintained. Sub-registries have been established in all main urban and rural districts, while in outlying areas and islands, births are registered at rural committee offices by visiting district registrars and deaths are registered at local police stations.

The statutory period during which a birth should be registered, and is registered without fee, is 42 days from the date of birth. Between the end of the 42-day period and the expiration of one year from the date of birth, the birth may be registered upon pay- ment of a fee of $2. During the year 77,465 live births and 20,763 deaths were registered, compared with 79,329 and 18,730 respectively in 1969. These figures, when adjusted for under-registration, give a natural increase in population for 1970 of about 59,100. Only 90 illegitimate children were registered without the name of the father in the birth entry.

A birth which has not been registered within one year after the date of birth may be post-registered with the consent of the Registrar and on payment of a fee of $15. During the year 2,010 such births were post-registered including 680 in the New Territories. The principal reason given for non-registration at the time of birth was simple negligence, but there continues to be a number of cases where non-registration was due to the fact that facilities for regis- tration were not available until 1932, and also some cases relating to births in the war years when there was no registration of births. However, in most cases during the last year applications for post- registration have been in respect of minors. The New Territories cases are dealt with at local sub-registries or by mobile registration teams. All applications for post-registration are passed to a legal officer in the Registrar General's Department for final approval.

The General Register Office is responsible for the compilation of vital statistics for the Colony. The Hollerith system is used for com- piling statistics of birth and mortality. This information is recorded in separate statistical forms and coding sheets for card punching and data processing by computer.