A Black Record.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3203, 13 May 1889, Page 2

A Black Record.

j'ld an article on Hayter's statistics , , for 1888, the Molbourne Telegraph remarks: " The lißt of deaths from violence.ia of appalling length and of • ' very remarkable cbaraoter. No less ] than 471 such deaths occurred dur- ! lug (lie year, 377 being ascribed to [ accident, 32 to homicide, and 62 to suicide. The railways killed 37 per- - , sons, within the metropolitan area I during tho year, no less than 36 being run over. The tramways killed I ' I persons' during the year, and, considering that the trams run through , the crowded streets, their rate of slaughter compares very favorably with that of tho railways, Tho railways and trams betwixt them,' however, kill on a average about one person per week in Melbourne, a lact which shows that our for locomotion -are attended with'" very considerable' risk, .Tho nura-. ber of lives, destroyed by mere stupidity rises to very melancholy proportions, No lesstban 16 mothers during the year, for example, killed their infauts by " over-laying" them I £ Forty-six persons, again, succeeded in burning, or scalding themselves to death', while 85 were drowned, a faot which proves that, for a maritime city, the art of swimming is sadly neglected in Melbourne, Onp. suicide rate is of appalling dimension's, being 68 for "the year, or considerably over one • per 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 24 murders committed in' Melbourne last year, or nearly one a fortnight, and the vie- . tiins, in no less than 19 instances,. were infants, strangled or' Emotheiedi by their own mothers I l''orty-fivei persons were killed in the streets efjr, - Melbourno during 1888 by being niflf over, while 13 nioro were killed by: kicks from horses, etc, The total deaths from violence and accidents ' during tho year, in fact, equals the number, of killed in a respectable, engagement, Melbourne is a -groat, and wonderful city, and.it grows fast both in wealth andpopulation; /but. 1 there is plainly a dark'side to its. ijifeV ■

, ■ A Wellington telegram says '[Parliament will be opened by the Governor ia person; ; Lord Onslovr is very' well I '' satisfied with his residenco, and seems, §• toHave formed a\ery good ok ■