BOY IS LEGALLY A GIRL

Grey River Argus, 10 December 1938, Page 6

BOY IS LEGALLY A GIRL

A CLERICAL ERROR. Through a registrar’s clerical error, a 16-year-old Sydney boy is legally a girl. Government action to rectify the error has been sought in Parliament by Mr. J. T. Lang. He said; that in 1922 a man had registered the birth of twin sons, one I of whom had been given the Christian names of Allen Roderick. Old enough now to apply for a job, the boy had been required to produce a birth certificate. “You can imagine his embarrassment when he found that he was not a boy, but a girl,” said Mr. Lang. “The registrar had written Ellen instead of Allen. “The position now is:— “The Registrar-General’s Department has not power to alter the entry; “The officer who made it is dead; “The nurse who attended the birth is dead; “The father, however, is alive, and able to certify that Allen is the child in respect of whom the registration was made.” The Treasurer (Mr. Mair) replied that he would refer the matter" to the Minister of Justice (Mfr. Martin). “The error will be immediately rectified, if possible,” he said. , ■ The boy, whose surname was not mentioned in Parliament, said: “Till three weeks ago I worked in the gutting shed at the abattoir. “But now they won’t employ me unless I have a correct birth certificate. “The certificate was all right at first, but someone has written the error on it in red ink."