s. Now the government proposed that the poor-law commissioners
should have the power of appointing the relieving-officer, or any other
person whom they might think fit, to keep the register of a certain
number of parishes; and the auditor of the union, or his clerk, or any
other person appointed by the poor-law commissioners, should superintend
the register of that part. There would further be a registry-office
in each county, and a chief office in London, subject, however, to the
authority of the poor-law commissioners. The superintendent in each
union was to send the registers to the county office every two months,
and copies would be transmitted thence to the central office in London.
As regarded the manner in which the registration was to be made, his
lordship said, that the bill would require notice to be given by the
occupier of the house in which the child was born within eight days
after that event had taken place, and that within fifteen or twenty days
the registrar might call upon either the father or mother of the child,
or upon the occupier of the house, to give him certain particulars, in
order to fill up accurately the register in respect to that child. The
person who furnished these particulars would also be required to furnish
the name of the child; if that was declined at the time, and withheld
to a future period, it would be necessary to postpone it, and the
party would be obliged to produce to the registrar a certificate of the
baptism of the child, and to pay him a fee of one shilling for making
the entry. In cases of death likewise the occupier would have to give
an account of the deaths which happened in his house--of the time and
circumstances of the event--in the same manner as was provided in the
case of birth. The registrar, within a certain time, would also call
upon the next of kin, or any person living in the house, to furnish
him with further particulars with respect to the death, the age of
the deceased, information as to what part of the country the deceased
belonged to, and all such other information as was usual and material in
such cases. Persons who gave this information would not be required
to pay any fees for the entry, or, indeed, for anything; but copies or
certificates of the entry at any time afterwards supplied would have to
be paid for. Every registrar would receive two shillings and sixpence
for each name entered by him within twenty days after birth or death,
and one shilling