VITAL STATISTICS.

Evening Star, Issue 3856, 3 July 1875, Page 2

VITAL STATISTICS.

In the * New Zealand Gazette’ of June 24 is published the Registrar-General’s report on the vital statistics of certain boroughs in the Colony for the year 1874. The following are the totals ; —Auckland Kstimated mean population for 1874, 11,786 ; total birth.*, 625 ; total deaths, 207 ; proportion of deatioto 1,000 of population, 16*18 'ihamesPopulation, 8,137 ; births, 266 : deaths, 100; proportion of deaths, 12‘’.;8 Wellington— Population, 10 614; births, 670; deaths, 265 ; proportion of deaths, 24 96. Nelson —Population, 6,744; births V 24 ; deaths, 75; proportion of deaths, 13 05. Christchurch—Population, 10 380 ; births, 518 ; deaths, 268 ; proportion of deaths. 26 81. Dunedin—Population, 18 731 ; births, 917 ; deaths, 412 ; proportion of deaths, 2199 Hokitika—'Population, 3,380.; births, 140 ; deaths. 47; proportion of deaths, 13’90 An exhaustive table, exhibiting the causes of death, is appended, as are also the following notesln Auckland, Wellington, and Hokitika the deaths of children under five were more numerous than the deaths of persons at five and over. In Nelson, Christchurch, and Dunedin the deaths of children under five were less numerous. In Hokitika they were equalised. The following was the birth rate per one thousand o* population in each borough : —Auckland, 48.5; Thames, 32 6; Wellington, 537; Nelson, 39 0; Christchurch, 49 9; Dunedin, 48-9; Hokitika, 41.4. The deaths of children under one year amounted to twenty-four per cent, of the total deaths in the boroughs. The total death rate varied considerably, having been highest in Christchurch, viz., 25*81 per 1,000 ; in Wellington it was 24*96 per 1 000 j‘ and in Dunedin 21 99 per 1,000 ; in Auckland it was 16*18 per 1,000 (but the deaths in the hospitals at Auckland and Hokitika are not included in the borough deaths for 1874, these hospitals being outside the borough boundaries). The Thames was lowest on the list, with a death rate of 12*28 per 1,000. While the largest numbtr of deaths from zymotic diseases occurred in Dunedin, \he

largest proportionate number occurred In Wellington. The increase in the latter borough was ch>efly attribute!)’e to the large number of deaths (fifty-seven) from dlarrhosa. Typhoid fever was most fatal in .Lhri tchurch (twenty-fire doatbe), and next so in Wellington (twelve deaths) j nine deaths from that cause occurred in Dunedin, and five in ea hj of the boroughs of Auckland and the Thames. Diphtheria was most fatal in Christchurch, causing twenty-one deaths ; sixteen occurred from the same cause in Dunedin ; the numbers elsewhere were small, the Thames being third on the list with four deaths. Measles was the cause of thirtythree deaths in Dunodin in 1874 ; no deaths from that cause occurred in either of the other boroughs. The greatest number of deaths from constitutional diseases occurred in Dunedin, but the highest proportion of such deaths occurred in Wellington. Of this o'aas, tubercular di eases caused fifty deaths in Dunedin, forty-two in Wellington, twenty-sight in OnristChurch, and twenty-two in Auckland. Of local diseases, those of t l e nervous system were most prevaleut in Dunedin, next so in Wellington, And next in Christchurch. Diseases of the organs of circulation (heart disease, See.) were by far most prevalent in Dunedia, and next proportionately .in Christchurch. Diseases of the respiratory system were most fatal in Dunedin (fifty-one deaths), Ohristohurub (thirtythree deaths), Auckland (thirty deaths), and Wellington (twenty-une deaths) Diseases of the digestive organs were most numerous iu Christchurch, (twenty-five deaths) ; twenty such deaths occurred in Dunedin, eighteen m Auckland, and fourteen in Weilington. The largest number of violent deaths occurred in the Thames and Wellington boroughs—fourteen in each.