The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1915. PROLONGING LIFE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 63, 17 March 1915, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1915. PROLONGING LIFE.

Many people have a vague idea that men and women live longer than they used to in the olden days, but few realise, says an English writer, to what extent they have been given extra years by the efforts of men of science 1 and the general improvement in conditions. In spite of the strenuous character of modern life, one; may at birth expect to live ten years longer than ir 1871-1880, and by the time one is thirty one still has an extra four years in hand. Of course these statistics must he taken as outside the risks of war. The new Life Tables issued by the British Registrar General show very clearly, in fact, that modern conditions, in! of the protests of simple life on-1 thusiasts, suit the people of the British Isles very well, and it is fair to presume that here in New Zealand we are rather better than worse off by comparison. In , the tables referred to every ten years show a steady improvement ,a steady lengthening of life, and there seems to be no reason why the process should ever stop. Ap-j parently, if the present rate of im-j provoment, a steady lengthening of men of, say, two hundred years hence may expect to live about sixty years longer than we live to-day, one optimistic computer thinks, and even suggests that in two hundred years’ time, if the doctors and scientists can keep up the pace, there seems to. he no reason why a man should not expect, as a matter of course, to ho playing a) good game of golf at the age ol one-, hundred-aud-twenty or so. li statis-i tics are any guide the woman who lias the good fortune to lie horn to-day has ( ton years’ advantage over the woman of forty yeark’ of ago. Naturally much i of the improvement in the statistical life tables is flue to the remarkable reduction in infant mortality, a matter; which is engaging close attention in New Zealand. The tables referred to show that even married life seems to have comparatively little effect on the mortality of women. In the earlier years wives suffer from a heavier mortality than spinsters, but from about forty-live to hfty-live the position is reversed, and still later in life there is not much difference between the two classes. It is widows who suffer most. At all ages their mortality is higher than that of either single or married women. In all probability the explanation is that as a rule they have a sterner struggle. From all points of view the figures show that if the worldj is not growing better—a matter of disputation, by-tlie-way—it is certainly growing more healthy.