SEPTEMBER BIRTHS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 260, 1 October 1940, Page 2

SEPTEMBER BIRTHS.

HIGH TOTAL RECORDED. , The chief features of the' vital slaLis tics for Palmerston North in September are an increase in births to one of the highest monthly totals recorded here and a fall by half in the number of marriages compared with Septemoei of last year. ■ ~ „ The total number of births was '4, an increase of 19 on the total for e>eptember last year. Records immediately available at the Palmerston North Magistrate’s Court go back to 19-4, and reveal that since that date the total last month was easily the highest September figure recorded. It is also probable that it constitutes a record for September births, for because ot the increase in population of the city in recent years it is unlikely that there would have been a total to exceed this before 1924. . .. The only monthly total in the available records which exceeds the September figure is in January of this year, when 82 births were registered, and this is probably a record monthly total for the city. . , . . The high figure of births here is in common with a tendency noticed in other parts of the Dominion. It lias been noted that in times of national stress there is an appreciable rise in the birth-rate. The decline in the comparison ot marriages is probably due to the- September total last year being unduly high because of many persons marrying just after the outbreak of war. The vital statistics for the month, with the figures for last year, arc as

follow: — 1940 1939 Birtlis ... 74 55 I)eaths ... 31 39 Marriages ... 24 48