THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2081, 4 September 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1875.

We have seen a copy of the Bill for the Eegistration of Births and Deaths, which under the fostering care of Dr Pollen may soon becomo the law of the land. The object of the Bill, according to Dr Pollen, is to consolidate the Eegistration Act of 1858 and the Amendment Act of 1869, as far as.Births and Deaths are concerned, while provisions relating to registration of marriages will be dealt frith by a separate bill. -The most noticeable feature in the Bill is the different form in which it will—should the Bill become law—be necessary for the Kegistration Officers to keep their books, and the more elaborate information it requires from those who come to register either a birth or death. Some of the additional particulars' required will perhaps be deemed inquisitive on the part of the Government, while those who give the information which leads to the registration of the death will be unable to supply others. In addition to the name of the father and mother of a child whose" birth is registered, and the maiden name of the mother, the registrar will for the future demand where the parents were married, and at what date. la the case of a death the following questions will be asked besides those hitherto put;— the duration of the last illness of the

deceased, the name of the medical attendant, and the occasion of the said attendant's last visit, the name aud surname of deceased's father and mother, with the mother's maiden -name, with their rank or profession in life. If the deceased was a married man the following items must be supplied :—When and where lie was married, at. what age, and to whom; if he has children the registrar will require to know their number and sex. All this will, it is obvious, entail considerably more labour on registrars, but we are quite in the dark as to whether Dr Pollen considers additional work merits additional pay. It is obvious that if all the information asked for is supplied the registers themselves will become valuable documents, especially in the matter of proving identity, succession to estates, &c, and the Bill, as is only right, has a due regard for this, and makes arrangements for their safe keeping. Of course much of the information required will be not forthcoming, as there may not be'those living who can supply it, or, if living, in ignorance of the death of the person registered. This will especially be the case with those who die in hospitals or in places where they are but little known, and the books themselves must therefore necessarily be imperfect, but still they will help to supply a want much felt, viz., a record of those who betake themselves to the colonies, or change from one province to another, and then pass away unknown, leaving no trace of identity behind them. Dr. Pollen has also reduced, wisely as we think, the registration fee from ten and sixpence to five shillings in the case of those who are registered before 62 days after their birth or death, and extended the time in which registrations can be -made "to two years. At present no registration can be legally made after the lapse of 62 days. As proposed by Dr Pollen, this time will be extended by an additional 18 months involving a fee of ten shillings additional to the five shillings charged to those -who register in the prescribed 62 days.

A great many complaints have been uttered against the Press .Agency—the association which collects and distributes the news of the day to subscribers. These

complaints areinmaDy installcesreasonable enough, but some' of them arise out of circumstances over 'which, the manager has no control, bein£ principally due to the want of knowledge or judgment of the sub-agents. But of late one or two incidents have occurred which go to show that some unprincipled persons have been making use of the Agency to circulate telegrams of a scandalous character. As an instance we may mention that a short time ago a telegram was posted in the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce as appearing in the Lyttelton Times of the 14th August under the heading of " Press Agency," to the following effect:—

'• There are rumours of more failures here of great magnitude, the goldfields district being in a depressed state and likely to affect general business."

The local agent at Dunedin promptly denied the authenticity of this message, characterising it as a gross fabrication, without a grain of truth in it, and further stated that the commercial prospects were quite sound. The Otago Guardian took the matter up, and in a sub-leader the following remarks appeared .—

" So far as the telegram in question is concerned, we can only stigmatise it as a malicious attempt to injure the commercial reputation of Dunedin, and at the same time we must express surprise that the agency, which employs a thoroughly competent and reliable man in this city, should so far forget what is due to him and to themselves as to place an outside telegram under its ordinary heading, especially when that telegram on the face of it bears the impress of falsehood."

From this we gather that it is in the power of unscrupulous persons to palm off on the telegraph department messages of a most mischievous character as j genuine telegrams from accredited agents. { No doubt some steps have been taken to j discover the author of: this mendacious forgery, but we do not hear that such has been done. Yet the matter seems easy . of elucidation. The agent of the Press Agency must be pretty well known to the receiving clerks of the telegraph department' in every large centre, and surely it would be easy to discover who received such a message as that given above ; the rest would simply be an effort of memory on the part of the receiving clerk. It is bad enough for newspaper proprietors to have to pay for messages of length containing news which has previously been published. This, however, is a matter which affects themselves principally, and may easily be accounted for by a want of knowledge on the part of some one perhaps temporarily ■ acting as agent. But when it becomes notorious that telegrams of a grossly false character can be sent by unscrupulous persons, affecting the commercial status ef a. whole community, it becomes a matter of public interest, and if the Press Agency is to maintain its character as collector and disseminator of news, some guarantee must be furnished against similar impositions. We hope to learn that the manager of the Press Agency has devised some means to prevent a recurrence of this kind ; and if newspapers exist unprincipled enough to place under the Press Agency heading telegrams emanating from another source, an example should be made of the paperso transgressing, or else a useful institution like the Press Agen3y may be prostituted to the purposes of unscrupulous persons for their own ends.