THEODORE R. MCKELDIN, GOVERNOR 159

ner. In any question arising from discrepancy between the
record of the Clerk of the Court and the record of the State
Board of Health in the case of marriages, divorces and annul-
ments of marriage, the record of the Clerk of the Court shall
be considered correct.

15. (Appointment of Registrars. )

(a) Health officers of the several counties shall be ex officio
county registrars of vital statistics. The Commissioner of
Health of Baltimore City shall be ex officio Registar of Vital
Statistics of Baltimore City.

(b) Each election district and incorporated town shall con-
stitute a registration district; provided that the State Board of
Health may combine or divide such registration districts in
any county when necessary in the opinion of the said Board
to promote more effective registration.

(c) The county registrar, with the advice and consent of the
local Board of Health, shall designate a competent person
in each registration district who shall act as local registrar.
Each local registrar shall immediately appoint a deputy local
registrar whose duty it shall be to act in his stead in case of
absence, illness, or disability or where such action is neces-
sary for the public health or convenience. Such local and
deputy local registrar shall accept appointment in writing
and shall be subject to all rules and regulations of the State
Board. In any district in which the local registrar is not
appointed within one month after an office or vacancy is
created, the State Board of Health is authorized to make such
appointment.

(d) The tenure of office of a local or deputy local registrar
shall be permanent.

16. (Duties of Registrars. )

(a) Each local registrar or his deputy shall within the dis-
trict for which they are appointed, receive birth, stillbirth
and death certificates, and shall issue burial and removal per-
mits for any such deaths, and shall perform such other services
as the State Board of Health may direct. No local registrar or
deputy local registrar shall issue any permit for the disposi-
tion of a dead body, excepting upon the presentation of a
proper and correct certificate of death. Nor shall he, in any
case, issue a permit for the disposition of any body already
interred or otherwise disposed of except as authorized by
regulation of the State Board of Health.

(b) Each local registrar shall transmit daily to the State
Board of Health, in envelopes provided for that purpose, the