This Act may be cited as the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Act, 1915, and shall form part of and be read together with the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

The Deputy Registrar-General or the Deputy of any Registrar shall, under the control of the Registrar-General or such Registrar, perform such general official duties as he is called upon to perform under the principal Act or by the Registrar-General or such Registrar.

On the occurrence from any cause of a vacancy in the office of the Registrar-General or any Registrar, and in case of the absence from duty of the Registrar-General or any Registrar, and so long as any such vacancy or absence continues, the Deputy Registrar-General or the Deputy of such Registrar shall have and may exercise all the powers, duties, and functions of the Registrar-General or such Registrar, as the case may be.

The fact of the Deputy Registrar-General or the Deputy of any Registrar exercising any power, duty, or function as aforesaid shall be conclusive evidence of his authority to do so, and no person shall be concerned to inquire whether the occasion has arisen requiring or authorizing him to do so.

Section four of the principal Act is hereby repealed.

Notwithstanding anything in the principal Act, there may be appointed more Registrars than one for any district, in which case births may be notified to and births and deaths may be registered with any of such Registrars.

For the purposes of section four of the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Act, 1912, a still-born child shall be deemed to be a child which has issued from its mother after the expiration of the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy and which was not alive at the time of such issue.

Section twenty-six of the principal Act is hereby amended by adding thereto the words “or by some person duly authorized in writing by the Coroner.”

Section forty-one of the principal Act is hereby amended—

Section sixteen of the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Act, 1912, is hereby amended by inserting, after the word “birth” in paragraph (a) and also in paragraph (b), the words “or death.”

Whenever an order of adoption is made under Part III of the Infants Act, 1908, it shall be the duty of the Clerk of the Court by which such order was made forthwith to send to the Registrar-General notice, in the prescribed form, setting forth the following particulars so far as they are known to the Court:—

On receipt of such particulars the Registrar-General shall, if the duplicate of the entry as to the birth of the child has been transmitted to him pursuant to section twelve of the principal Act, forthwith note and sign on such duplicate a memorial in the following form—namely, “Order of adoption of [Name of child], dated the   day of  , 19  , made by [Name of Judge] in favour of [Name or names, address, and occupation of adopting parent or adopting parents].”

The Registrar-General shall in every case forthwith send to the Registrar by whom the birth was registered a copy of the notice received by him from the Clerk of the Court; and the Registrar shall forthwith note and sign on the original entry as to the birth of the child, and on the duplicate entry in cases where the duplicate has not been transmitted to the Registrar-General, a memorial in the form prescribed by the last preceding subsection; and shall also re-register, in duplicate, particulars as to the birth of the child, substituting the name by adoption for the natural name of the child, and substituting particulars as to the adopting parent or parents for particulars as to the natural parents; and shall transmit the duplicate of such entry to the Registrar-General as if it were a duplicate of an entry made by him pursuant to section eleven of the principal Act.

Whenever a copy of the entry as to the birth of any child to whom this section relates is required for any purpose the Registrar or the Registrar-General, as the case may be, shall supply a copy of the entry made pursuant to the last preceding subsection in lieu of a copy of the original entry unless the applicant certifies that the particulars recorded in the original entry are material for the purpose for which the copy is required.

Nothing in this section shall be deemed to dispense with the obligation to register the birth of any child in the manner prescribed by the principal Act.

The foregoing provisions of this section, relating to the registration of particulars as to adopted children, shall apply in the case of children in respect of whom orders of adoption under Part III of the Infants Act, 1908, or the corresponding provisions of any former Act have been made before the passing of this Act if the Registrar-General is satisfied, by certificate under the hand of the Clerk of the Court or otherwise, as to the truth of the particulars required to be registered.

Notwithstanding anything in the principal Act it shall be lawful for the Registrar-General to register the birth of any person born in New Zealand previous to the period of six months before the passing of this Act, but whose birth has not been previously registered:

Provided that satisfactory evidence on oath and such other proof as he may deem necessary of the fact, time, and place of birth, and of the particulars of the parents, shall be received by the Registrar-General within twelve months after the passing of this Act, and that on application to have such birth registered a fee of five shillings shall be paid to the Registrar-General.

The particulars of the birth and of the nature of the evidence produced shall be entered by the Registrar-General in a separate book to be kept by him for that purpose.