VITAL STATISTICS.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 605, 27 May 1876, Page 3

VITAL STATISTICS.

The following is the Registrar’s report on the vital statistics of the various boroughs of the colony for the month of April, as published in the Gazette : P t°i P on' a 'BM- deaths, *£> Auckland ... 13,186 49 24 1-82 Thames ... 8,356 15 2 024 Wellington 11,298 65 28 248 Nelson ... 5,886 23 10 I‘7o Christchurch 10,772 35 13 l’2l Dunedin ... 19,657 82 23 I'l7 Hokitika ... 3,498 10 _ 5 1*43 The deaths of persons not residents of the boroughs, occurring at hospitals, have been excluded in all cases. The population has been estimated by adding the excess of biiths over deaths since the Ist March, 1874, to the then census population. It is impossible to estimate the increase from immigration. The births were 46 less than in March. The deaths were 62 -less in number than the deaths in March, but accurate comparison is interfered with by the metl o 1 in which certain of the deaths at hospitals have been dealt with. Of the deaths, males contributed 67 ; females, 38 ; 63 of the deaths were of children under 5 years of age, being 50'48 per cent of the whole number ; 39 of these were of children under 1 year of age. There were 7 deaths of persons of 65 years of age and over ; 6 of these persons were males and 1 a female. Of these, 4 males, aged respectively 66, 67, 72, and 76, died at Wellington ; 2 males of 68 and 74 at Nelson ; and 1 female of 65 at Christchurch. A comparison for the months of March and April shows a very decided decrease of mortality. The number of deaths for each borough is less than in March, but the difference is greatest in Christchurch and Dunedin. The proportion of deaths to the 1000 of population fell from 3-JI to I*2l in the first-named town, and from 292 to I*l7 in the latter ; or if the hospital deaths excluded were included as in former report*, the death rates would have respectively fallen from 3-11 to 1‘67 in Christchurch, and from 2’92 to 158 in Dunedin. In Auckland the proportion of deaths was 1 per cent, less than in March. The general decrease is accounted for by the decline of Zymotic disease, the deaths from which were much reduced in number. Diarrhoea and dysentery, of which there were 49 cases in March, were fatal to only 18 persons in April. The cases of typhoid fever were about equal for the two months, as although fewer appeared in the analysis for April, several cases of country people dying in hospital were rejected, as shown below. Constitutional diseases fell from 25 to 14 in. number. 6 cases of deaths in hospital from phthisis were, however, rejected in April Diseases of the respiratory system showed a Blight increase, taking all deaths in hospitals into account.