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Registration of Births.
It is of the utmost importance, lor statistical and other purposes,
that all births should be registered. The register of births is also
becoming increasingly important for private, as well as public purposes.
It is frequently required for purposes connected with the
Factory Acts; in proof of age of candidates for Civil Service clerkships,
and of those seeking employment in many Government Offices,
and for purposes of life assurance. So far as it concerns the upper
and middle classes of society, we shall probably find that all births
are duly registered. But the poorer'classes do not appear to be
impressed with the duty of registering the birth of their children, and
some, it is to be feared, are persuaded by the anti-vaccinationists
against the registration of the birth of their children in order to avoid
the vigilance of .the Vaccination Officer.
It might tend to promote a better registration of births, if the
Clergyman, at the time of registering the baptism of a child, were
to require the parent to produce the certificate of the registration
of the birth of the child. In short, all legitimate means
should be taken to point out the importance of registering the
birth of every child. One of the means for accomplishing this
object might be adopted by distributing placards and hand-bills
in the District, directing the attention of the public to the
principal provisions contained in the Act for the Registration
of Births and Deaths (37 and 38 Vict., ch. 88, and dated 7th
August, 1874). By the first section of this Act, it is enacted that,