VITAL STATISTICS.

Evening Star, Issue 4063, 4 March 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

VITAL STATISTICS.

The Tlegistrar-General’s vital statistics of this Colony for the year 1875 axe as follows s

Wellington shows the largest increase of toy place in the number of births, and stands exactly at the'happy medium as to the death rate, there being just as many towns with a higher as with a lower rate. Auckland (highest of all), Christchurch and Nelson are in the former, and the Thames(lowest of all), Hoki tika and Dunedin in the latter class. It is a deplorable fact that 616 deaths, or onethird of the total number, resulted from Smotic diseases, or in other words from Hisses preventable by observance of the simplest and most ordinary sanitary precautions. This point, however, we have urged so often and so strongly, that it is useless to dwell on it further. The figures speak for themselves. : The curiosities of the report deserve a passing notice. It is satisfactory to observe that, 'small-pox has a blank place among the causes of death, and that those "Very unpleasant diseases communicated from the lower animals, hydrophobia and glanders, are similarly unrepresented. The prosperous state of this Colony is shown by the fact that not a single death is recorded under the head of “privation but, on the other hand, it is gratifying to note that this prosperity has not led us into an excess of luxury, for only one death from gout occurred, although we regret to see ten deaths from intemperance and six from delirium tremens set down—none, however, happened in Wellington, The most fatal disease was- diarrhoea, which occasioned 158 deaths; consumption (139) came next; then typhoid fever (128); measles (126); bronchitis (105) ; pneumonia (97) ; and heart disease (79). AH the other numbers were very small; but among them, occur two alarming names—namely, cholera, which caused 4 deaths, and typhus 6. Old age was fatal to 24 persons, of whom 9 died in Wellington, and 9 in Auckland. The number of violent deaths was 79, comprising 65 caused by accident, 7 by murder or manslaughter, and 7 by suicide. Not a single case of capital punishment is recorded for 1875. Of the total -number of deaths, 11 are returned as from “causes nqt defined.” The death rate for 1875 shows an increase over 1874 in every part of the Colony, varying from 3.4 per <W»t. in Dunedin, and 7.5 in Wellington to 126.1 in and 112.0 in Nelson.— ‘Post.’

Boroughs. Total Births. Total Deaths. Proportion of Deaths p jv 1,000. Auckland; 536 468 3V77 Thames 244 . 15j l«i 6 ’Wellington 695 285 26 01 Kelson 328 159 2739 Christchurch ... 570 323 30-44 Dunedin ... 996 426 2224 Hokitika a. 138 74 21-38 Total...... ... 3,407 1,885