YEAR BOOK 87

VITAL STATISTICS

The Registrar General under the Vital Statistics Act is the Commissioner of Agriculture, The Hon. Murdoch McKinnon

This act provides that the father of any child born in the Pro- vince, or in the case of his death or absence, the mother of the child or occupier of the house or tenement in which it was born, or someone standing in the place of its parents, shall within thirty days give notice of the birth to the District Registrar of the regis- tration district in which it was born.

Clergymen and all who perform the rites of baptism, marriage, or funerals shall also keep registers in such form as may be fixed by the Registrar General showing the persons whom he baptises, or marries, or who may die within his cure or congregation. In the case of death, the occupier of the house or tenement is, within seven days, to report the death to the District Registrar. It is further provided that no clergyman, minister or other person in the city of Charlottetown and towns of Summerside and Georgetown shall bury or perform any funeral or religious service for the burial of any dead body unless he has, if it were possible to do so, receiv— ed a certificate under the hand of the District Registrar of the dis- trict in which the death took place, that the particulars of such death have been duly registered. It is further provided that every duly qualified medical practitioner who was last in attendance during the last illness of any person, shall within forty-eight hours after having notice or knowledge of the death of such person, transmit by post, prepaid, to the District Registrar of the district in which the death took place, a certificate under his signature set- ting forth the cause of death.

As to marriages, every clergyman or other person authorized by law to celebrate marriages, is required to report each marriage he celebrates to the Registrar General within thirty days from the date of such marriage and is authorized to collect, in addition to his fee the sum of twenty-five cents. which sum he is required to pay to the Registrar General at the time of sending in his return as a fee for recording such certificates.

The Registrar General is to cause the original return of the births, deaths and marriages in each district, together with all the particulars communicated to him by the said District Registrar or clergymen, ministers or other persons, whose duty it is under this Act to communicate same, to be arranged, indexed, bound and kept in his office. He is also at the sitting of the Legislature to publish for the use of the Legislature a full report of the births, deaths and marriages of the preceding year giving such details,