Starting on January 25, 2009, New Zealand law requires anyone ordering a birth, death, marriage, civil union or name change certificate to provide evidence of their own identity before they are can access the data.
Under the new law, when applying for a certificate or related item, the researcher must sign a written statement saying that the information they are providing is true and correct. The statement must also be signed by a person of standing in the community, such as a Kaumatua or a Justice of the Peace. The new law only applies to fairly recent records however.
Historical Records are exempted, including births occurring over 100 years ago, deaths that occurred over 50 years ago and marriages that took place over 80 years ago.
Read more about New Zealand’s new Vital Records laws in the Northern Courier.