530                             LAWS OF MARYLAND                      [CH. 321

[(b) Registration districts.—Each election district and incorpo-
rated town shall constitute a registration district; provided that the
State Board of Health may combine or divide such registration dis-
tricts in any county when necessary in the opinion of the said Board
to promote more effective registration.

(c)   Local and deputy local registrars—In general.—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 necessary 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)   Same—Tenure of office.—The tenure of office of a local or
deputy local registrar shall be permanent.]

[16. Duties of registrar.

(a)   Receiving birth, stillbirth and death certificates; issuance of
burial and removal permits.—Each local registrar or his deputy shall
within the district for which they are appointed, receive birth, still-
birth 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 disposition of a dead
body, excepting upon the presentation of a proper and correct cer-
tificate 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)   Transmitting certificates—To State Board.—Each local reg-
istrar shall transmit daily to the State Board of Health in envelopes
provided for that purpose, the originals of all the certificates of
birth, death and stillbirth received by him. Deputy local registrars
shall transmit certificates received by them at intervals and in the
same manner prescribed by the regulations of said Board.

(c)   Same—To local health officer.—At the time of mailing the
original certificates of birth, death, and stillbirth to the State Board
of Health, the local registrar shall prepare for the health officer of
his county a copy of such certificate upon the form provided by the
said Board and certified by the registrar to be a true and correct
copy; provided that the State Board of Health is authorized, when
deemed by it to be in the public interest, to prepare such copies,
photostatically or otherwise, in its own office, and to instruct the
local registrar not to prepare such copies. In either event, such
copies shall be forwarded as promptly as possible to the county
health officer concerned, by the Board or its designated agent.

(d)   Monthly report to State Board.—Each local and deputy local
registrar, on the first day of each calendar month shall forward to
the State Board of Health upon the form to be provided by the
Board, a report of the number of certificates transmitted by him to
the Board during the preceding calendar month; and if no certifi-