A BLACK RECORD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1890, 11 May 1889, Page 3

A BLACK RECORD.

In an article on Hayter’s statistics for 1888, the Melbourne Telegraph remarks: —“The list of deaths from violence is of appalling length and of very remarkable character. No less than 471 such deaths occurred during the year, 377 being ascribed to accident, 32 to homicide, and 62 to suicide. The railways killed 37 persons within the Metropolitan area during the year, no less than 36 being run over. The tramways killed 7 persons during the year, and considering, that the trams run through the cclwded streets, their rate of slaughter r compares very favorably with that of the railways. The railways and trams betwixt them, however, kill on an average about one person per week in Melbourne, a fact which shows that our facilities for locomotion are attended with very considerable risk. The number of lives destroyed by mere stupidity rises to very melancholy proportions. No less than sixteen mothers during the year, for example, killed their infants by “overlaying” them! Forty-six persons, again, succeeded in burning or scalding themselves to death, while eighty-five were drowned, a fact which shows that, for a maritime city, the art of swimming is sadly neglected in Melbourne. Our suicide” rate, however is of appalling dimensions, being sixty-two for the year, or considerably over one a week,

Behind these figures stands what an unmeasured bulk of misery and madness ! Our murder rate, again, is on a very uncomfortable scale. There were twenty four murders committed in Melbourne last year, or nearly one a fortnight, and the victims, in no less than nineteen cases, were infants, strangled or smothered by their own mothers! Forty-five persons were killed in the streets of Melbourne , during 1888 by being run over, while thirteen more were killed by kicks from horses, &c. The total deaths from violence and accidents during the year, in fact, equals the number killed in a respectable engagement, Melbourne is a great and wonderful city, and it grows fast both in wealth and population; but there is plainly a I dark side to its life.”