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The Registrar-General, Sir William C. Dunbar, Hart., c.B., in his 67th Annual
Report for the year 1904, the last issued, under the heading of final remarks,
page xlix., expressed an opinion which bears directly on the recommendation
forwarded to the Local Government Hoard by the Borough Council at the end
of last year, to the effect that the Local Government Board be urged to
promote legislation providing that births must be registered within five days
of their occurrence, as is required in the case of deaths by the Births and
Deaths Registration Acts, to obviate the present delay of many weeks and
even of months.
The Registrar-General's opinion is to the effect that—"After serious con"sideration
of the situation as it presents itself to me, I have come to the
"conclusion that, whilst it would be unwise at present to disturb the
"existing organisation of birth registration, a well devised system of early
"notification of births—legalised and worked in conjunction with the present
registration system on the one hand, and with sanitary administration on the
"other—might, along with other motive forces, serve as a most effective and
"lasting barrier with which to stem the tide of Infant Mortality."
The Huddersfield Corporation recently obtained statutory powers to enforce
under a penalty the notification of every birth occurring in the Borough
within forty-eight hours after the occurrence, and a provision is made to pay
one shilling for each such notification, the notification to be made by the father
or person in attendance upon the mother.
The St. Pancras Borough Council resolved to adopt tentatively a system
of voluntary notification of births during a period of three months, and to
pay to the father, or, failing him, to the doctor, midwife, or other person
attending upon the mother, the sum of one shilling for notifying a birth
within forty-eight hours of its occurrence in the Borough.
The notification commenced on the 19th August, and the thirteen weeks
of the quarter of the year terminated on Saturday the 17th November.
During the thirteen weeks, 304 notifications of births were received. Of
these, 66 were notified by doctors, 150 by midwives, 35 by institution officers,
15 by women friends or helps, and 38 by fathers and other relatives.
Of these 304 notifications, 5 were found to be just outside the St. Pancras
boundary, and are therefore excluded, the total number of notifications
being 299.
The social condition of the families in which the notified births occurred
may be judged by the number of rooms in the dwellings and the occupations
of the fathers. As to the number of rooms, 55 families occupied one room,
124 occupied two rooms, 48 occupied three rooms, 12 occupied four rooms
(but 4 of the families included other relatives), 4 occupied more than four
rooms (but 1 of the families included other relatives), and the remaining 35
were either in public institutions or service. As to the occupations of the
fathers, 67 were labourers, 25 carmen, 14 painters, 13 horsekeepers, 14
railway porters, 10 pianoforte workmen, 10 cab drivers, 6 printers, 6 door
porters, 6 coalmen, (3 factory hands, 5 milkmen, 5 potmen, making 187 in
the foregoing, and in addition a large number of similar occupations of
which there were 4, 3, 2, or 1 each.