REGISTERING BIRTHS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29566, 15 July 1961, Page 13

REGISTERING BIRTHS

Discrimi na lion Abolished (N.Z Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 14. A form of racial discrimination in the separate systems of registering Maori and European births in New Zealand is being abolished. A Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Bill, introduced in the House of Representatives today, places the registration of both Maori and European births on the same basis. At present the birth certificate of an adonted child shows that he is adopted, not in direct fashion, but because of the omission of certain details —for instance. the occupation of the adoptive father and the maiden name of the adoptive mother—which are shown on other birth certificates.

The bill provides that these additional details are to be supplied to the RegistrarGeneral, enabling birth certificates of adopted children to become indistinguishable from those of natural children of parents named on the certificate. Provision, however, has been made to have the fact that the parents are adopttive parents shown on the certificate where the adoptive parent is an unmarried woman or where the adoptive parents so desire.