§ SIR MAURICE LEVY (Leicestershire, Loughborough)To ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been drawn to the case of William Moss, of 84, Oakland Street, Widnes, who had a child born to him on the 16th September, 1907, which was registered on 30th September, 1907; 15 whether he is aware that when registering the birth of the child no form of declaration of conscientious objection to vaccination was handed to him, although registrars all over the country had been instructed to hand Form A., Part 2, to persons registering births in the case of all children born after 31st August, 1907; whether he is aware that Mr. Moss applied to the same registrar for a form on 6th January, 1908, and was refused on the ground that the forms had been called in, although in other similar cases registrars had issued to the applicant a duplicate vaccination schedule; whether he is aware that Mr. Moss applied to the local magistrates on the same date, and was refused exemption on the ground that he had no form, notwithstanding the fact that the Vaccination Act, 1907, permits any kind of declaration, printed, typed, or written, provided it is in the form set out in the Act; and whether he will give the Widnes vaccination officer instructions not to prosecute this man for the non-vaccination of his child, seeing that he has done all in his power to comply with the Act, but has been prevented partly through the action of the registrar and partly through the action of the local justices.
(Answered by Mr. John Burns.) I have made inquiry with regard to this matter. I find that the registrar acted in accordance with a strict interpretation of the instructions contained in a circular issued
| Amount of Compensation Fund Charges paid by Retailers of Beer and Cider and Wine in the years ended 31st March, 1906 and 1907, and in the ten months ending 31st January, 1908. | ||
| Period. | Beer and Cider. | Beer and Wine. |
| £ | £ | |
| Year ending 31st March, 1906 | 184,986 | 55,382 |
| Year ending 31st March, 1907 | 176,221 | 52,972 |
| Ten months ending 31st January, 1908 | 173,366 | 53,249 |
| Total | 534,573 | 161,603 |
| The payments for the ten months to the 31st January represent practically the whole amount for the financial year. |
§ by the Registrar General, which applied to births registered on and after the 1st October. The Registrar General, however, regrets that the case was not referred to him for advice, as he would have instructed the registrar to give Mr. Moss a copy of Form A., Part 2, although in fact the birth was registered on the 30th September. The application made to the justices on 6th January, appears to have been one for a certificate of conscientious objection. Mr. Moss was informed by the clerk that the new Act was in force, and that it had abolished those certificates and substituted a declaration which one of the justices would take. He was also told that he could obtain a form of declaration from the registrar, but, in the circumstances, this was not the case. The Local Government Board do not give instructions as to whether prosecutions should or should not be instituted in particular cases, but, looking to all facts here, I do not suppose that proceedings would be taken against Mr. Moss for the non-vaccination of the child.