The Short Title of this Act shall be “The Vaccination Act 1871” It shall come into operation on the first day of March one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.

“The Vaccination Act 1863” is hereby repealed Provided always that nothing herein contained shall in anywise affect any act or thing lawfully done or any proceedings taken or commenced or any offence committed under or against the said repealed Act.

Any person who after the passing of this Act shall produce or attempt to produce in any person by inoculation with variolous matter or by wilful exposure to variolous matter or to any matter article or thing impregnated with variolous matter or wilfully by any other means whatsoever produce the disease of small-pox in any person shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against summarily and upon conviction to pay a penalty not exceeding ten pounds or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding one month.

The Colonial Secretary shall at all times cause to be kept at such places as the Governor shall from time to time appoint an adequate supply of pure vaccine lymph for the purpose of furnishing on application and without payment to Public Vaccinators under this Act and to legally qualified Medical Practitioners such reasonable quantities of such matter as by any such Vaccinators or Practitioners may be required The expense of providing keeping and supplying such vaccine matter shall be defrayed out of moneys to be appropriated for the purposes of this Act by the General Assembly.

The Governor may from time to time appoint such and so many qualified persons to be Public Vaccinators under this Act and from time to time remove any person so appointed and appoint another qualified person in his place and every Public Vaccinator shall be paid out of moneys to be appropriated for the purposes of this Act by the General Assembly such annual salary or fees as the Governor shall from time to time appoint.

Any person who shall be a legally qualified Medical Practitioner shall be qualified to be appointed a Public Vaccinator.

And the Governor may from time to time appoint for each Province or other division of the Colony a Medical Practitioner to be a Certifying Officer for the purposes hereinafter mentioned and any person not being a legally qualified Medical Practitioner and whether he shall hold any degree or diploma in medicine or surgery or not whom any such Certifying Officer shall certify to be a competent and proper person to be appointed a Public Vaccinator shall be deemed qualified to be so appointed And for such certificate there shall on the appointment of any person so certified to be a Public Vaccinator be paid to the Certifying Officer out of moneys to be appropriated for the purposes of this Act by the General Assembly such fee not exceeding three pounds as the Governor shall from time to time determine.

The Governor may from time to time appoint such places for the performance of vaccination as he shall think fit and may take such means as he thinks fit for giving from time to time due notice to the public of the days and hours at which a Public Vaccinator will attend at such places to vaccinate all persons who may then appear and desire to be vaccinated or whom he may be required to vaccinate.

The Governor may from time to time fix the places at which each Public Vaccinator is to attend to perform vaccination and the days and hours at and during which he is to attend there and each Public Vaccinator shall attend at the place and time and during the hours so appointed and there vaccinate without fee or reward other than as provided by this Act all persons who shall attend there and who shall be willing to be vaccinated or whom being apparently under fourteen years of age he shall be required to vaccinate and every Public Vaccinator shall endeavour to ascertain whether the vaccinations performed by him have been successful.

Every Public Vaccinator who shall have performed the operation of vaccination upon any child shall ascertain whether the operation has been successful or not and shall within twenty-one days after the performance of the operation transmit by post or otherwise a certificate under his hand according to the form in the Schedule to this Act annexed or the like effect certifying that the said child has been vaccinated successfully or not as the case may be to the Registrar of Births in the district in which the birth was registered but if such district is not known to him or if the birth of the child shall not have been registered to the Registrar of the district within which the operation shall have been performed.

Where a vaccination shall be performed by a Medical Practitioner not being a Public Vaccinator appointed under this Act the parent or other person causing the child to be vaccinated shall submit a certificate according to the form in the Schedule to this Act to such Medical Practitioner to be filled up and signed by him and shall within twenty-one days after the performance of the operation transmit the same so signed by post or otherwise to the Registrar of Births of the district where the birth of such child was registered or if the birth of such child shall not have been registered or the district of the registration shall not be known to such parent or other person to the Registrar of Births of the district in which the operation shall have been performed.

The Registrar of Births in every district shall keep a book in which he shall register the certificates transmitted to him as herein provided.

The Governor may from time to time take such measures as he thinks fit for making known throughout the Colony the advantages of vaccination.

Every Registrar of Births shall on the first day of January and the first day of July in each year send to the Public Vaccinator or Vaccinators residing in his district a list of all children whose births are registered by such Registrar and who do not appear by the register kept under this Act to have been vaccinated.

If the teacher of any school which is supported wholly in or part by grant or from rates or any public funds or by any endowments whether Colonial Provincial or Parochial shall have reason to believe that any child attending such school has not been vaccinated he shall give notice to the nearest Public Vaccinator and such Vaccinator shall examine the child and if upon examination he shall be of opinion that such child has not been successfully vaccinated he shall thereupon vaccinate such child Provided that in the case of persons above the age of sixteen the examination shall be conducted by a legally qualified medical practitioner and the person if necessary be vaccinated by him.