Comparing the total deaths from these two diseases in cities with those for the whole Province, it is found that while the population of the cities stands to that of the Province in the ratio, roughly, of 1 to 5, yet the ratio of pneumonia in the cities to that in the whole province is as 1 to 3.5, and that for bronchitis as 1 to 2.7.

COMPLETENESS OF RETURNS IN ONTARIO.

The twenty-four years since the Act for the registration of births, marriages and deaths went into force have seen most notable changes in the physical features of many parts of Ontario, and still more in the sociological development of her municipalities. In 1871, while the population of Ontario was 1,618,245, that of the towns was 164,937.

In other words while the same cities to-day have a population of 387,607, or 18% of the total for the whole province, they had, in 1871, but 10% of the whole.

Further, in only a few towns was there any street lighting in the modern sense. Public water supplies, even in Toronto, were almost unknown; sewers, where existing, were of the crudest kind, while one has only to read local notices of the times to show how many details of municipal affairs now existing were then practically unknown. Local boards and medical officers of health were only emergency appointments, while spring cleaning, even in cities, was very partially enforced. Smallpox was treated in the general hospitals, while isolation of the eruptive diseases, and still less disinfection, were measures as yet not appreciated or executed.

Registration of anything more than deeds had then hardly begun in the counties, until 1859, when an Act was passed requiring clergymen to register all marriages celebrated by them with the county registrars of deeds. This Act was made applicable in the same year to the new re-arrangement of counties for municipal, juridical and other purposes. Thus began legal vital registration in Ontario, but of marriages only. Remembering that the Registration Act in England was passed only in 1837, and that it found much opposition in various quarters from the clergy, it may be said that progress in this direction in Upper Canada was begun early. The formal instructions for enforcing this registration of marriages was as follows:

SECTION 5, CAP. 72, 1859, CONSOLIDATED STATUTES OF UPPER CANADA.

"Every clergyman or minister shall, immediately after he has solemnized a marriage, enter in a book to be kept by him for the purpose, a true record of the marriage; and shall, on or before the first day of February in every year, return a certified list of all marriages by him solemnized during the year ending on the thirty-first day of December next preceding, to the registrar of the county in which the marriages have taken place, and shall, at the time of making the return, pay or transmit to the registrar one dollar as his fee thereon.

Sec. 7. On receipt by the registrar of any such list, he shall file the same among the papers of his office, and record the same in a book, to be kept by him for the purpose; and in case of the death or absence of the witnesses to a marriage, such register, or a certified copy, shall be sufficient evidence of the marriage, and the registrar shall give a certified copy of a marriage record to any person demanding the same, on payment of fifty cents.

Sec. 12. Every clergyman, minister, clerk, secretary, or other person, who, in any year, refuses or neglects to return the certified list required of him by this Act, on or before the first day of February, shall forfeit for every day's delay, after that day, the sum of four dollars, which sum shall be recoverable, with costs, before any magistrate of the county in which the person resides, and shall be applied according to law.

Sec. 13. The Clerk of the Peace of every county shall, at the expense of the county, from time to time on demand, furnish all clergymen or ministers and others in the county required by the Act to make returns, with the books to be kept, and with printed blank forms for the lists to be returned; and such books shall have columns and headings printed on each page, according to the form given in the sixth section, and the books and forms shall be of such size and form as to admit of the necessary entries being conveniently made therein.

The method adopted for registering marriages is thus seen to be one by which county registrars were required to keep the original certificates and to make indexes of each marriage so returned. The Government had no direct relation with, or control of, those

returns.

When the Registration Act of 1868-1869, extending its operations to the registration of births and deaths as well, was passed, provision was therein made by Mr. Pardee (the late Hon. T. B. Pardee), then a private member of the House, who introduced the Bill, whereby the Provincial Secretary became the Registrar-General of the Province. The Clerks of the Peace of each county were made District Registrars, and they were required to transmit books and forms, prepared and supplied by the Registrar General, to the several Division Registrars, or Municipal Clerks, who, in turn, were to make the returns to the District Registrars who again forwarded them to the Registrar-General. The Division Registrar was required, under Sec. 8, Cap. 30 of the Act to register the particulars of any birth returned, and receive therefor ten cents from parent or informant. Similarly for every death registered, the clerk received ten cents, and for every marriage reported by a clergyman as being celebrated by him, the clergyman was to pay ten cents to the Division Registrar, collecting the same at the time of marriage in addition to the marriage fee. Under this Act the work of Provincial registration began in 1869 and has continued ever since. Slight amendments to the Act were made in 1869.

Under the Act of 1869, Cap. 23, Sec. 8, the municipality was to pay the Division Registrar, in addition to the above fees, "whatever the municipality deemed just."

No further change took place in the Act until 1875, when the Acts of 1868 and 1869 were repealed, and their place supplied by the amended Act. Under it the District Registrars disappeared (except so far as the term now applies to Registrars of the Unorganized Districts), and the Division Registrars were brought into direct relations with the Registrar-General. The latter supplies them with forms, receives from them returns, and issues certificates to them on which they are entitled to receive payment for returns from the municipality. Such are the terms of the Act, which has practically

remained unchanged since 1875.

I have referred to the growth of the work of Vital Statistics because it illustrates two interesting points: first, the recognition that the growth and permanency of social institutions in Ontario required some method by which the legal aspects of marriages and the rights of birth would in the future be placed on an established basis, and further, that a means would be supplied by which all who wished could from statistics observe the actual growth of populations, whether native or foreign, and of the social influences determining the results in each instance; and, second, that by it is illustrated the evolution, seen in other parts of our municipal government, as when the populations in 1832, then divided into a few judicial districts, was by the Act of 1859 sub-divided into counties, 42 in all, whose courts, registry offices, and all similar county functions, such as that of the registration of marriages, as seen in the Act quoted, were administered by county officials.

The growth of population, and of the further sub-division of municipal duties by increased powers to townships, villages and towns marks itself in legislation, such as appears in the amended Act of 1875 above referred to.

The following table of the volume of business done in the Registrar-General's branch in 1871-3 and 1892-3 illustrates at once the economy in the expenditure of funds, in the close supervision of returns, and in the availability of the records for the uses of all persons interested therein, whether resident within or outside the Province under the present Act. STATEMENT showing the Expenditures and Volume of Business in the Registrar General's Department during several years.

While the present Act has several manifest advantages, it has in practice several positive disadvantages, viewed from the standpoint of correct returns which were absent even from the early Marriage Act of 1859 and the Act of 1868-9.

In the clauses quoted it will have been seen that the clergyman who celebrated a marriage paid a small fee of one dollar per year to the Registrar, intended for the expense connected with indexing the marriages in the County Registry Office. In the Act of 1869 provision was likewise made for the payment of ten cents by the party who obtained the advantages of registration, the Municipal Council adding thereafter to the clerk's salary such further sum as might be deemed proper, to pay him for his labor in making returns to the District Registrar. The amount paid for such work was fixed by Order in Council. It appears that County Clerks of the Peace who were District Registrars were paid in the several years of the existence of the Act of 1869 out of Provincial funds the following amounts:

While these several ways of having the labor of collecting returns paid for seer in some degree somewhat more cumbrous than the present method, it at any rate placed Division Registrars performing the work in a better position than they are at present. Then they were entitled to ten cents for each registration-as much as they can legally get now, and more than many actually do get, since it is a common practice for munici palities to commute the payment of ten cents for each registration by paying the Division Registrar an annual salary for doing all the work which may fall upon him as municipal clerk. The result in practice is, as many of the answers made to the Inspector show, that the Division Registrars will not make any serious attempt to get complete returns, as they say they are paid no more for all their pains whether the number be 100 or only

10.

While in practice there is no doubt that the amendment of the Act introduced in 1875, by which the Registrar-General was brought into direct relationship with the Division Registrar, has been a distinct saving of Provincial funds, by a withdrawal of the fees from the Clerks of the Peace appointed District Registrars under the Act of 1869, yet it has, by fixing the remuneration of the Division Registrars, or municipal clerks, at 10 cents, without providing that they shall be assured of getting this amount, distinctly lessened the efficiency of the method of obtaining complete returns. Some such clause as that "Division Registrars shall be entitled to receive, over and above any amount paid them for salary as municipal clerk; and they are hereby prevented from commuting the same by receiving any stated salary to cover all their duties, except in cities of over 25,000 inhabitants," would seem to supply, at any rate, a partial remedy. Twenty years' experience since 1875 in the working of the present Act has been sufficient proof that the whole question of payment in proportion to work done of Division Registrars must be reconsidered if any notable improvement in returns is to be expected. Until such takes place, it seems idle to have provisions for punishing Division Registrars for neglect to perform their duties, and as unreasonable to expect them to punish householders who neglect to make returns of births and deaths. The defects of registration dependent on this are, I believe, fully illustrated in the returns for cities.

For instance, it does not seem at all likely in three cities similar in many ways as are St. Thomas, Stratford, and St. Catharines, that the average marriage-rate for ten years has stood as 12.7: 8.1 8.4. Further, it does not seem probable that in Kingston and Belleville, cities close together, the average birth rates should stand for the same ten years as 25 4: 18.7

Again, when a death-rate, which can be obtained fairly accurate from the caretakers of cemeteries, shows for ten years, as in St. Catharines, 18 0 per 1,000, with a birth-rate extending over ten years averaging less than the death-rate, can it be conceived that birth returns are in any degree accurate?

To illustrate the fact of such omissions it may be stated that the number of registrations recorded during the years 1892 and 1893 for previous years and registered as provided under the Act by special permission in each case by the Registrar-General was, of births, 359, marriages, 16, and deaths, 8, or a total of 383, distributed as follows:

By a comparison and close study of the diagrams following this report it becomes apparent that some immediate alterations in the methods by which improved local returns can be insured are demanded.

In addition to increasing the remuneration, as suggested in the last annual report, to 25 cents for each complete birth and for each complete death return, and retaining marriage returns at 10 cents, there should be provision whereby the clerk shall be assured of such compensation, and then, if thereafter it can be shown that he is neglecting his duties in obtaining complete returns, power should exist in the Act whereby the Registrar General can require the municipal council to appoint another person as Division Registrar.

As will be seen in the summary of work appended hereto done by the Inspector, Col. R. B. Hamilton, the difficulties experienced by Division Registrars in 1893 are very much the same as those set forth in his report of 1892.