AT A FRENCH BIRTH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XXII, 28 November 1896, Page 122

AT A FRENCH BIRTH.

The birth of a new citizen in France at once gives rise to countless formalities, and an avalanche of legal scribblings, which would teach him, could be but understand, that his country is par excellence the home of legal ceremony and administration. Within the first twenty-four hours notice of the birth must be sent to the Mayor’s office (there is such an office in every village in France), so that the official physician may call and make the necessary legal statement. I suppose he wants to convince himself that the declaration already made was correct, and that the family, when it annonneed the birth of a girl, was not trying to screen a fntnre soldier from his compulsory service. Then the father, accompanied by two witnesses, goes to fill out the birth certificate, and give bis child its legitimate, documented position, to which he or she will be obliged to have recourse in all the great, and frequently in the minor, circumstances of life, from one end of it to the other. Without it the child could not enter a school, nor draw lots on entering the army, nor get married, nor be buried. The least mistake of form would have most serious consequences; the baptismal names declared must always be placed in the same order on all future deeds. These are usually saints’ names. I recall the amusing anger of a young American father of my acquaintance, who wished to give his son born in Paris the name of the great sailor, Duquesne, in remembrance of the avenue where the baby bad seen the light of day, and in addition the family name of one of his friends, which no Frenchman could pronounce. All this seemed so shocking and incongruous to the Registrar that the certificate was made out only after an interminable discussion.