THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2317, 9 October 1908, Page 1

THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT

MARRIAGES AND THE BIRTH RATE.

SOME SIGNIFICANT STATISTICS.

[Special to “Times.”] •

WELLINGTON, October 8. Tho annual report ol ! tho Public Health Department, opens with a" lengthy treatise on consumption. Dr. Mason referred specially to tho case of the consumptive from tho Waikato Sanatorium on route to Wellington, who was rccontly refused lodgings hi Onehunga. Vainly ho sought lodgings, and although ho had money enough to pay ho could find a bed nowhore save ill an out-house. From oilier to jiost did ho wandor till finally lie found sholtor in an hotel where he died.

“I wish to proclaim it as loudly as I can,” says Dr. Mason, “that the mail who lias spent a few months in a well ordered sanatorium is a safer neighbour even though,ho he still a consumptive, than the sufferer who has had no , institutional instruction though ho’ inay seem ill. Destruction of tho sputum, earo of tho person, and all th-.it proper living really -spells lias been so dinned into them at the sanatorium "that it is next- to impossible for them.to beliavo in such a way as to endanger tho health of. others.” On tho t'oxt of work for the cured Dr. Mason preaches a sermon on an out-door life. Ex-patients of sanatoriunis can now get this o-ut-door life at tho “Labor Camp,” at Waipu, by engaging in the healthy occupation of tree planting. On the question of a larger encampment a report was submitted from Dr. Magill. He seems to think that Taupo is tho ideal site for such a camp. The climate is ideal, the scenery very beautiful and work could be found there for a largo number of men -for many years to come.

Statistics from-lthel Registrar-Gener-al's Department aro incorporated in the'-report. They are for the year ended December, 1907. In regard to the vital statistics Dr. Mason points out that the average number of children to a marriage is still on the decline. Last year the proportion of births to every marriage solemnised in the preceding year was 3.21, while for 1907 it was 3.51. “Whatever we may think of this almost universal decline in the birth rate, I confess I can see to way in which the State can interfere to check it. Commissioners have sat in various parts of the world and discussed the subject in all its phases, voluminous reports have been written, but it has all been as a beating of the wind. To my mind the remedy is not to be found in reports but in a national awakening and an increase in patriotism. All sorts of cures have been advocated, such as grants of land_to parents having over a certain number in the family. I have little faith in such remedies.

The death rate has increased to 10.95, which is the highest fince 18S3, though it is. still much below that of older countries. The death rate amongst children was very heavy. Last year 97 out of every thousand males born and 80 out of every thousand females died before attaining the age of 1 year, that is, one in ten malo children and one in twelve females. “If,” said Dr. Mason, “we group those deaths due to diarrhoea and enteric, which is, much the same along with marasmis, which often spells nothing moro than bad feeding, we have S6l out of a total of 1811 due to ignorance, want of carp, and impure milk. Replace these with knowledge love, and a clean milk supply and much would have been substracted from this awful roll, and yet New Zealand shows less sacrifice than any other country. Take Russia with an average rate over ten "years of 268 deaths under the 1 year to 1000 births, England and Wales 147, and we find the Dominion right at the bottom with 88,79 per 1000 births. Though the total exacted be small in comparison, yet it is too great. The earlier notification of births insisted on by the Act of 1907,. which requires a birth in a city or borough to bo registered within -72 hours is Gure to effect much good. Influenza claimed 223 victims in 1907 as against 132 in 1906. Detailed accounts of the cases of plague which occurred in Auckland arc given. The death rate from consumption increased slightly last year, and there was also an increase in "the deaths from cancer. There were no fewer than 674 deaths from this disease. The number of births registered during 1907 was 25,094 or 27.30 in every. 1000 persons living. The number of births is 842 "in excess of that for the year 1906, an increase of 3.47 per cent. From 1882 until the year 1899 there was a regular fall in the birth rate. The number of births registered in a year reached 19,846 in 1884, and after falling to 17,876 in 1892 has risen to 25,094 in' 1907 as stated above. One table given in the report shows that although New Zealand had in 190 p the lowest birth rate in Australasia,, the rate for 1907 was higher than that for New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. A declining birth rate is noticeable in many civilised countries, and attention has been drawn by statisticians and political economists to the serious consequences that may result. That fertility among women, in- New Zealand is decreasing, from whatever' causes further facts will tend to show. Taking the number of married women in New Zealand at what may be considered the child-bearing age (i.e.) from 15 to 45 years inclusive) as shown by each census since 1878, and for the same years the number of legitimate births (excluding plural) registered, the birth rate per 1000 married women of the above stated ages is easily found and is shown to be steadily declining. In 1878 the rate was 337 per 1000, in 1896 it had fallen to 252, in 1908 to 228, or in other words in 1878 one married woman of the ages specified in every three gave birth to a child, while in 1906 the rate was less than one in, four. There is .food for reflection on the part of your law makers in several of these tables. Members of Parliament can make laws and even a health department, but in spite of tlie latter the deaths increase and births decrease, while as for tlie laws themselves they may be increasing the cost of living and a man’s responsibility and even conduce to decay in a nation. For -instance there is one table in the report which shows for a period of 25 years the numbers of married women living at 15 to 40. These proportions have found to have diminished appreciably at the'earlier ages 15 to 20 and W 0 to .■ 25, but but the numbers of tlie living are much smaller at those ages than at the higher ones 25 to 30 and onwart.s to 40 and 45, and the effect of tins lesser number of wives at the lower ages in reducing the birth rate would not be so much as might as first bo thought probable. It is, however, undoubtedly a fact, says Dr. Mason, that to havo a glowing proportion of wives at the earlier productive ages is, the best position,

hut it is nob tho one which obtains, at present, in Now Zealand. -One tabid' shows that England and Wales for 1900-2 stands as having had tho lowest fertility of all the European countries specified, except l 1 ranee. Now Zealand shows a little- nbovo England and in respect of Australia somewhat higher than South Australia, New South Wales and \ ictoria. Vet -another tnblo shows .the birth rates for 10 you ns in G Britain and other countries of tho European continent. There aro nko given from tho same source tho rates in England and Wales and in Scotland, which arc higher than those in Now Zealand, but tho rate for Ireland is lower. France has the lowest rate of all. The New Zealand birth rate fell from 34-3-J per 1000 of the pomilation 111..1880 to 27.22 in 1905. Last year the births of 1157 children were illegitimate. Tims 40 in every 1000 children born wore born out of wedlock against 4i in 1906. \)