The secretary of health and environment shall supervise the registration of marriages, births and deaths, and also the registration of forms of disease prevalent in the state; and the director of the division of public health shall superintend the registration of the vital statistics of the state. The secretary of health and environment shall prepare the blank forms necessary for obtaining and preserving such records, and forward them to the health officers of local boards as may be required by physicians, appraisers, local boards and others whose duty it is to gather information in relation to the vital statistics of the state.