VITAL STATISTICS OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 730, 21 October 1876, Page 3

VITAL STATISTICS OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.

(Argus.) The most interesting column in a newspaper to many persons is that which records the births, the deaths, and the marriages of a community. To this portion of the journal it is that the feminine mind is invariably attracted. And as extremes meet, nothing affords the sage and statesman better food for reflection than precisely the same information collated, classified, and arranged. Very much of the welfare of a nation is involved in marriage, birth, and death rates, and we are indebted to the Sydney Morning Herald tor embodying some suggestive information on these subjects in a comparative statement. The following figures are given to show the ratios in question for each one thousand of the persons living in the various colonies :

On the whole, New Zealand shows to the most advantage, the marriage and the birth rate being of the highest proportions, and the death rate lower than any in the group. Indeed, it would be difficult to name ary place in the world where the mortality is so small, and certainly it would be impossible to point to any European country that would bear comparison. The hero of Locksley Hall breathes an intention to — , , “ take some savage woman ; she shall rear my dusky race.” It would be much better for any gentleman in his position to turn his thoughts to the Bister isles of the Pacific, where apparently he can rear as large and as healthy a family as he pleases. For every person who leaves the world in New Zealand, three are born in it, and such a fact speaks volumes to the student of vital statistics. In Melbourne last year, according to returns published by Mr Girdlestone, the city health officer, the proportion was three deaths to four births, and the difference is startling. In semitropical Queensland, marriages are as numerous and children are as plentiful as in New Zealand, but then the death-rate is the highest in the group, Western Australia alone excepted. New South Wales and South Australia preserve the happy medium in all things, and as for Victoria, it must be written with mingled feelings, that the colony has ceased to be a good marrying country, the matrimonial unions being the lowest in proportion on the list. Fewer children are born here also than in any other colony except Tasmania, and on the continent itself Victoria has the smallest average. The marriage rate is universally regarded as a test of prosperity, and the fact we place on record of our rapid declension in this matter is afflicting to the ladies and a warning to politicians.

1874. Persons married per 1000. Births per 1000. Deaths per 1000. New South Wales Victoria Queensland South Australia ... Western Australia 15 2 122 17-2 16-0 140 38-9 33’6 41T 38-2 33-7 152 15-3 18-0 170 187 Mean of Australia ... 14-9 37-1 16-8 Tasmania New Zealand 136 17'7 20-7 40 3 16-2 130 Mean of Australasia... 15-4 357 15-3