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Vaccination Act, 1898.—This Act is of such great importance that it is
desirable to quote it fully. The first eight sections practically contain the measure
and run as follows :—
1.— (1.) The period within which the parent, or other person having the
custody of a child shall cause the child to be vaccinated shall be six
months from the birth of the child, instead of the period of three
months mentioned in section sixteen of the Vaccination Act of 1867,
and so much of that section as requires the child to be taken to a
public vaccinator to be vaccinated shall be repealed.
(2.) The public vaccinator of the district shall, if the parent or other
person having the custody of a child so requires, visit the home of the
child for the purpose of vaccinating the child.
(3.) If a child is not vaccinated within four months after its birth, the
public vaccinator of the district, after at least twenty.four hours notice to
the parent, shall visit the home of the child, and shall offer to vaccinate
the child with glycerinated calf lymph, or such other lymph as may
be issued by the Local Government Board.
(4.) The public vaccinator shall not vaccinate a child, if, in his opinion,
the condition of the house in which it resides is such, or there is or has
been such a recent prevalence of infectious disease in the district, that
it cannot safely be vaccinated, and in that case shall give a certificate
under section eighteen of the Vaccination Act of 1867, of postponement
of vaccination, and shall forthwith give notice of any such
certificate to the Medical Officer of Health for the district.
(5.) Notwithstanding any regulation of any lying.in hospital or infirmary,
or other similar institution, the parent of any child born in any institution
shall not be compelled under such regulation or otherwise to
cause or permit the child to be vaccinated at any time earlier than the.
expiration of six months from its birth.
2.— (1.) No parent or other person shall be liable to any penalty under
section twenty.nine or section thirty.one of the Vaccination Act of
1867, if within four months from the birth of the child he satisfies
two justices, or a stipendiary or metropolitan police magistrate, in
petty sessions, that he conscientiously believes that vaccination would
be prejudicial to the health of the child, and within seven days thereafter
delivers to the Vaccination Officer for the district a certificate by
such justices or magistrate of such conscientious objection.
(2.) This section shall come into operation on the passing of this Act, but
in its application to a child born before the passing of this Act there
shall be substituted for the period of four months from the birth of the
child the period of four months from the passing of this Act.
3.—An order under section thirty.one of the Vaccination Act of 1867,
directing that a child be vaccinated, shall not be made on any person
who has previously been convicted of non.compliance with a similar
order relating to the same child.