NEW YEAR BOOK CONTAINS MINE OF INFORMATION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 59, 21 June 1950, Page 6

NEW YEAR BOOK CONTAINS MINE OF INFORMATION

New Zealand gained only 4181 new citizens from overseas during the year ended March 31, 1949, although some 140,000 persons arrived at or departed from her ports that year. This is one of a multitude of facts to be found in the consolidated year book for 1947, 1948 and 1949, which has just been released. The book of 1000 pages, contains a mine of information covering many phases of national life.

New features include a section on the national income pf New Zealand and a report on the course of retail prices, with special reference to the consumers’ price index compiled on a post-war basis. The section on labour laws and allied legislation has been completely revised, including much new material. Excluding crews and through passengers, arrivals totalled 35,945 and departures 31,765, making the net excess of ai'rivals 4181, as compared with 5756 in 1948. 3038 in 1947, and 2343 in 1946 (March years), states the Year Book. Immigrants Increase

Recent statistics of the number of immigrants intending permanent residence show considerable increases, rising from 1704 in 1945 to 11,387 in 1949.

On the question of retail prices it is stated that the consumers’ price index base (first quarter 1949 equals 1000) was 1002 in the quarter ended June of that year, 1014 in the quarter ended September, and 1013 in the quarter ended December. At that time the index numbers covering all groups of commodities were as follows for the four main centres: Auckland 1017, Wellington 1017, Christchurch 1013, Dunedin 1000.

A large amount of statistical information is given concerning population figures, vital statistics, and associated topics, and the Year Book observes that New Zealand’s infant mortality rate, excluding Maoris, is normally the lowest in any country in the world. New Zealand, it is stated, in spite of her remarkably low infant-mortality rate, has succeeded in further lowering the level by more than eight per 1000 live births in the short space of the five years 1944-1948. “At the same time,” it is commented, “thereis no room for complacency in this respect, as other countries are also achieving appreciable improvements in their infa'nt mortality, and, indeed. Sweden has, during the last two out of three years, succeeded in equalling New Zealand’s rate.”