H.—3l.

PART II. —PUBLIC HYGIENE.

I have the honour to submit my annual report, for the year ended 31st March, 1934. SECTION I,— VITAL STATISTICS. POPULATION. The mean population of the Dominion for 1933 (exclusive of Maoris) was estimated to he 1,466,930. This total represents an increase over the corresponding figure for the previous year of 10,693, or a percentage increase of population of 0-73. BIRTHS. The births of 24,334 living children were registered in the Dominion during 1933, as against 24,884 in 1932. The birth-rate for 1933 was thus 16-59 per 1,000 of mean population. The general course of the birth-rate during the last five years is shown in the following table : — Births (Number and Rate) in New Zealand. 1929-1933. Total Number of Birth-rate per 1,000 Year. Births registered, of Mean Population. 1929 .. .. •• •• •• 26,747 19-01 1930 .. .. ■■ ■■ 26,797 18-80 1931 .. .. .. .. 26,622 18-42 1932 .. •• ■■ •• 24,884 17-09 1933 24,334 16-59 The birth-rate steadily declines. There were 24,334 births for a pupulation of 1,466,930, and there were 11,701 deaths, the difference or natural increase being 12,633 persons, or 0-86 per cent, only of the total population. Loss during the year in the migration balance, accounts for the population increase being only 0-73 per cent. DEATHS. The total number of deaths (11,701) registered during the year 1933, as compared with 11,683 in 1932, shows an increase of 18. Crude Death-rates. Crude Death-rate per v Crude Death-rate per Year - 1,000 Mean Population. ' 1,000 Mean Population. 1929 .. .. 8-75 1932 .. .. 8-02 1930 .. .. 8-56 1933 .. .. 7-98 1931 .. .. 8-34 New Zealand has a very low general death-rate, but, owing to the steadily reducing birth-rate, her annual natural increase of population is only 0-86 per cent. STILL-BIRTHS. Still-births, which are defined by the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1924 as " children which have issued from their mother after the expiration of the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, and which were not alive at the time of such issue," are compulsorily registrable in the Dominion. The next table shows the number of such births and their rate per 1,000 live births in individual years for the quinquennium 1929-1933. Still-births (Number and Rate) iy New Zealand, 1929-1933. Total Number of Rate of Still-births per * ear - Still-births registered. 1,000 Live Births. 1929 .. .. ..870 32-5 1930 865 32-3 1931 .. .. •• ..809 30-4 1932 .. .. •• ..746 30-0 1933 722 29-7 * (Note. —Still-births are not included, either as births or deaths, in the various numbers and rates given elsewhere in this report.)

2—II. 31.

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