Vital records in Hawaii.

I j Although registration has been approximately complete only in recent years, nearly a million records are now on file, some of them dating back over a hundred years. The oldest marriage records were filed in L84I; the oldest death records in 1853; and the oldest birth records in 1853. A local registrar in each county is responsible for supervising the registration system Tvithin his arca and for collecting and forwarding certificates to the Bureau of Health Statistics. In the counties of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui, the county health officer acts as the local registrar; in Honolulu, the local registrar is a full-time employee within the Bureau of Health Statistics. Beginning in l9AL, government physicians served as local registrars. In 1950, a change was made to county health officers and the Bureau of Health Statistics' employee on Oahu, thereby reducing the number of registrars from 35 to four. Since the central office can deal more easily with four officials than rvith a larger number, this reduction greatly simplified administration of the system. With present-day communication facilities, the reduction in number of registrars does not inconvenience the public. The Health Department, through the Bureau of Health Statistics, also maintains agents in each county who issue mariage licenses to applicants meeting the necessary legal requirements. \trith the exception of one civil service employee within the Bureau, the agents are appointed by the President of the Board of Health. There are 28 of them distributed throughout the Territory. The Uses of Vital Records In addition to supplying certified information to individuals and families for personal use, the Bureau of Health Statistics also uses vital records to assist other agencies. For example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Internal Revenue sometimes receive assistance in searching for addresses and other information needed to locate individuals; title searching agencies are assisted by tracing genealogies; upon request, welf.are agencies and the juvenile courts receive verifications of age; immigration officials obtain information regarding citizenship; newspapers get lists of current births, deaths and marriages for their columns; periodically, county clerks are furnished notices of deceased persons twenty-one years of age and over for purging voter lists; and, foreign consulates get notice of the deaths of their nationals.