H.—22

8

The following tables show the additions to and removals from the Medical and Dentists' Registers during the last five years : —

Medical Register.

On the .'iist December last there were 1,683 ministers on the list of officiating ministers under the Marriage Act having authority to solemnize marriages in New Zealand, as follows : Church of Ihc Province of New Zealand, commonly called the Church of England, 456; Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, 370 j Roman Catholic Church, 268; Methodist Church of New Zealand, 293; Congregational Independents, 30; Baptists; 59; Church of Christ, 35; Salvation Army, 10!); other denominations, 63. The number of searches made and certificates issued last year by the Head Office was as follows: .For Pensions Department, 11,257 (including 4,795 for war-pension purposes); for National Provident Fund, 7,942; for Labour Department, 1,788; for Education Department, 1,297; for Defence Department, 339; other searches (for public, eve.), 1,107 : certificates issued— Ordinary, 6,808; soldiers' deaths, 5,000: total searches. <fee, 35,898. The war has added a great amount of work to this Office in the way of searches for births and marriages for war-pension purposes, and also for claiming 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 over sixteen thousand, and the number of searches for warpension purposes has assumed very large proportions, comprising nearly half of the searches now undertaken for the Pensions Department. As will be noticed, searches for the Defence Department have shown a fall almost to zero. In addition to this work the Department lias compiled a, register of deaths of members of the New Zealand Expeditionary h'orces and others which occurred while out of New Zealand on service in some capacity in connection with the war. The revenue of the Department, though steady for several years, shows a decided advance for 1915- Mi. a severe drop for 1916-17, a further drop for 1917-18, but a slight recovery for 1918-49. The revenue for the last financial year is a record for the Department, being an increase of £5,628 on the revenue for the previous year. The revenue for the last five financial years was as follows: 1915-16, £16,865; 1916—17 » £13,684; 1917-18, £12,450; 1918-19, £12,811; 1919-20, £18,439. Searches for other Departments of the Service are made free of charge. If these were paid for, the revenue of this Department would be augmented by over £1,000 a year. li was not until 19T6 that the expenditure of the Registrar-General's Office was kept separately. The expenditure for the last four years was—l9l6-17, £9,175; 1917-18, £9,176; I!) I, slid, £11,020; 1919-20, £14,348. From- the foregoing figures it will be seen that the Department, although not generally considered a, revenue-producing one, not only pays its way, but, in addition, contributes a substantial sum annually to the revenue of the Dominion. W. W. Cook, Registrar-General. The Under-Secretary, Departmeni of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

1915. 1916. Number on register on 1st January .. .. 1,268 948 Number added during year by registration . . 28 .'57 Number added during year by restoration .. .. ' 6 Number removed during year on evidence of death .. 8 10 Number removed during year by direction of Medical Board — Letternot delivered and returned to Registrar-General 309 18 Ceased to practise .... 20 Reported dead .. .. .. 11 1917. 1918. j I 962 969 27 30 1 3 21 17 1919. 985 48 8 20 1 Number on register on 31st December .. ■ 948 962 i 969 985 1,015 Dentists' Register. 1915. 1916. Number on register on 1st January .. .. 769 767 Number'added, during year by registration .. .. 3 Number removed during year on evidence of death . . 4 6 I Number on register on 31st December .. .. j 767 764 1917. 1918. 764 759 I 6 6 75') 753 1919. 753 5 7 751 I