POPULATION AND LIFE STATISTICS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2044, 11 September 1880, Page 4

POPULATION AND LIFE STATISTICS.

TO TUB EDITOB OF THE PEESB. Sib, —Referring to your leading article of Thursday, I doubt not that when you criticise the census of next December you will do so exhaustively. In the meantime, in connection with your remarks on the burden of taxation and debt ua compared to population, it may interest, and perhaps astonish, many of your readers to know some important facta in connection with the proportion of adult males in the colony taken by census on the 27th February, 1871, and the 3rd March, 1878, respectively. To include the bread winners, the ages taken extend from twenty-one to aixty-five years of age. During the period of seven years above referred to, the total population (exclusive of Maoris) increased from 256,393 to 414,412, but the adult males between the ages of twenty-one and sixty-five only increased from 97,145 to 118,176, consequently the proportion of adult males to total population fell from 37 9 per cent, in 1871 to 28 5 per cent. inl878; or,in ether words, whereas in 1871 the burden of supporting 1000 people fell, it may be said, on 379 adult males, in 1878 the same load was carried by only 285. Population statistics ore bo little understood, that it is usual, even in speaking of the burthen of debt, or the proportion of exports and imports, to dwell only on the gross number of the population, and to lose sight of their proportionate capacity to pay or to produce. The intense activity of the Australian colonies, and their great proportionate ability to produce and to consume, has bean largely dus to the exceptional share of adult males imported. Tnia advantage they must lose in time as the population approaches the ordinary average of settled communities. It is evident that the process of equalisation is astonishingly rapid in New Zealand, therefore the average member of the population, including women and children, can no longer bo expected to produce or consume as much as heretofore, or to bear with the came ease equal taxation par head. While wiiting, I may as well refer to a kindred matter upon which much misconception existo. I constantly see congratulatory noticro comparing the death rate per 1600 of population in this colony with other places. I think that. New Zealand is undoubtedly healthy, but the usual paragraphs on this subject are sheer nonsense and exaggeration. Here we have an unusually large proportion of people imported in the prime of life and strength, and of course they can’t be expected to die off before their time. The fact is, that the only fair basis for comparison requires that tfeo average population should be of equal ages, and born in the country at each place respectively. Yours, &0., Fbbb. B. A. Graham,