H.—22
13
of Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards and the institutions under their control, under a new and uniform system of commercial accounting inaugurated by the Public Health Department in 1916-17. Quarterly censuses of stocks of coal are still taken regularly; and in addition special censuses of stocks of oil, stocks of turnip, swede, and rape seed, and stocks of tinplates, iron and steel bars, &c, have been collected during the past year. Malcolm Fraser, Government Statistic] an. The Under-Secretary, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.
11. REPORT OP THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL. Registrar-General's Office, Wellington, 10th August, 1918. I give hereunder a statement of the business transacted by this Department during the last five years. This shows a marked falling-off in marriages during the last two years : —
I also give a statement showing the number of marriages of Natives solemnized during the same period under the Native Land Act, and the number of Maori registrations effected under the regulations relating to the registration of births and deaths of Maoris : —
In addition to the business referred to above, the registration of medical practitioners, dentists, and officiating ministers is undertaken by the Department, and a considerable amount of searching is done free of charge for other Government Departments. The number of searches for the last twelve months made by the Head Office alone, under various headings, is as follows : Pensions Department—Old-age and widows', 3,070; war, 4,357: National Provident Fund, 5,336: Labour Department, 1,587: Education Department, 963: Defence Department, 5,714: other searches (for public, &c), 2,019. Certificates issued —Ordinary, 6,630; soldiers', 12,000. Total searches, &c, 41,676. The war has added a considerable amount of work to this office in the way of searches for births and marriages for war-pension purposes, and also for clainiing separation and children's allowances from the Defence Department. The number of searches made for the last-named Department from April, 1916, to date amounts to close on thirteen thousand, and the number of searches for war-pension purposes is assuming very large proportions, comprising more than half of the searches now undertaken for the Pensions Department. In addition to this work the Department has undertaken the compilation of a register of deaths of members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces and others which occurred while out of New 'Zealand on service in some capacity in connection with the present war. This register is now practically up to date. The revenue of the Department, though steady for several years, shows a decided advance for 191.5-16, a severe drop for 1916-17, and a further drop for 1917-18. This is due to the decrease in marriages, the Department's chief source of revenue. . The revenue for the last five financial years was as follows: — 1913-14. 1914-15. 1915-16. 1916-17. 1917-18. £14,355 £14,163 ,£16,865 £13,684 £12,450 It was not until 1916 that the expenditure of the Registrar-General's Office was kept separately. The expenditure for the year 1916-17 was £9,175, and for the year 1917-18, £9,176. W. W. Cook, Registrar-General. The Under-Secretary, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.
Year. Births. Deaths. M.arriage Notices received and Certificates issued. Marriages solemnized. Marriages by Registrars (included in previous column). 913 .. 914 .. 915 .. 916 .. 917 .. 27,935 28,338 27,850 28,509 28,239 \__ 10,119 10,148 9,965 10,596 10,528 9,132 9,589 10,620 8,450 6,687 8,846 9,326 10,064 8,231 6,464 1,547 1,765 1,861 1,729 1,589
Year Maori Births. Maori Deaths. Maori Marriages. 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 586 (10 months) 857 968 1,020 1,235 412 (10 months) 723 786 761 729 241 221 178 197 205 (approximate)