REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS AND DEATHS (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

Mr W. A. C. Goode: Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

The purpose of this Bill, Sir, is fully explained in the Explanatory Note attached, and there is little I think I need add.

The Bill does two things. It requires the registration of the name of the child within one year from the date of its birth and gives a period of one year in which the name of the child can be changed, as I understand not infrequently happens here. As the law now stands, the name can be registered on payment of a fee for a period of seven years from the date of birth. This has caused a good deal of trouble over the admission of children to schools. When parents come to register their children, they find that the birth certificate either has not got a name on it, or it has the wrong name on it, and they then have to go to the inconvenience and expense of making statutory declarations to get the uncertainty put right. On general grounds as well, it is desirable that the name of the child should be registered as soon as possible after the child has been born. So the Bill requires that the name shall be registered within one year. Provision is, however, made for the Registrar-General in special cases to allow the name to be registered up to seven years.

The second main provision of this Bill is that it ends the temporary provision which was made in 1946 extending the period for registration to make up for the loss of time during the period of the Japanese occupation. That temporary provision is no longer required and will be ended when this Bill is enacted. Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.