89

H.—3l

Infant-mortality (to every 100 Births). Wellington Wellington Average of City. and Suburbs. Four Centres. 1903 ... ... ... ... ... 9-28 9-27 961 1904 ... ... ... ... ... 9-55 9-53. 894 1905 ... ... ... ... ... 10-02 9-62 8"66 1906 ... ... ... ... ... 7-11 7-19 7-61 1907 ... ... ... ... ... 11-85 11-78 10-91 Mean for five years ... ... 9-56 9 - 47 914 It will be noted that the infant-mortality for Wellington City, and city and suburbs, is higher than the mean of the four centres. This is the usual condition of things. Only once in the past four years has it varied —viz., in 1906, when the infant-mortality for the Wellington City, and city and suburbs, was well below the mean of the four centres, as a glance at the above table shows. Zymotic Death-rate. During this year a large increase in the deaths from zymotic disease has occurred in all the four, centres, Wellington and Christchurcli having 110 each, as compared with 22 and 23 respectively in 1906; Auckland, with 103, against 42; and Dunedin, with 72 in place of 46. Wellington has a percentage of 27 of the total number of deaths in the four centres from this cause. This is higher than last year, when the percentage fell to 17, but is lower than the two preceding years, when it was 32 and 29 respectively. The increase in the number of deaths has been mainly due to diarrhoea, influenza, measles, and whooping-cough. No deaths were recorded from the two latter diseases in 1906, while this year measles was responsible for 15 deaths and whooping-cough 28. The mean in Wellington, including suburbs, for the previous five years was 56 deaths. Deaths in Total of *toP«tfon <* Four w,r i m and Suburbs. Centres. Wellington, per Cent. 1903 ... ... .... ... ... 52 256 20 1904 ... ... ... ... ... 65 202 32 1905 ... ... ... ... ... 34 115 29 1906 ... ... ... ... ... 22 133 17 1907 ... ... ... ... ... 110 395 27 Mean for five years ... ... 56 220 25 i Causes of Death from Zymotic Diseases. Diarrhoea was responsible for 23 deaths in the city and suburbs this year, compared with 2 in 1906 and 12 the previous year. The wisdom of Dr. Makgill's comment last year may here be noted: "It is perhaps too soon to express a hope that this great decrease is due to the attention lately drawn to the importance of pure milk and proper diet in the upbringing of infants." To the figures for 1907 must be added 51 deaths from gastritis and enteritis —18 more than were registered from these diseases in 1906. The total deaths from diarrhoea in the four centres were 111 this year, as against 29 last year, the increase being due to a fairly uniform rise in each centre. Our statistics are as yet insufficiently " aged " to be able to draw therefrom conclusions even approaching accuracy. Meteorologically it has to be noted that this year contrasted well with last, when the diarrhoea death-rate was so low, in average temperature and scantiness of rainfall during the summer months. Measles was the cause of the death of 15 persons in 1907. No deaths from this disease were registered last year. Diphtheria. —Under this heading are recorded 9 deaths, as compared with 5 last year. Twenty-three deaths occurred within, the four centres. Wellington percentage, therefore, is 39" 1, which is unduly high. There were 125 cases of this disease notified in this city, giving a case death-rate of 72 per cent. One point worthy of note is that, though the number of cases notified under the Act is nearly four times that of last year, the percentage of the case death-rate has fallen from 11 to 72 per cent. Scarlet fever was responsible for 9 deaths. This is an increase of 8 deaths over last year. There were, practically speaking, four times the number of cases notified this year as compared with last, and this fact must be taken into consideration when the increase in the number of deaths is noted. Last year 135 cases were notified, and this year 525. The other deaths from zymotic diseases are: — Enteric Fever, nil, as against 4 last year and 3 in 1905. Influenza, 17, as against 6 last year. Other Zymotic Diseases, 9, as against 4 last year. Whooping-cough, 28, as against nil last year. As regards diseases other than zymotic in Wellington, we find : — Cancer, 50, as against 53 last year. Tubercle, 69, as against 60 last year.