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Deaths. The deaths recorded during 1919 numbered 10,808, as compared with 16,364 in 1918 and a yearly average of 9,730 in the period 1910-14. The Government Statistician gives the standardized death-rate for 1919 as 912 per 1,000 of the total population. The following table shows the number of deaths and the death-rates for the decennium 1910-19. The low level of the rate for 1919 is most satisfactory.

It is gratifying to record that the rate of infantile mortality for 1919 was 4526, the lowest rate yet experienced in the Dominion. The next table shows the decline which has taken place during the last twenty years : —

It is generally acknowledged that the infantile-mortality rate serves as an index of the combined social and sanitary progress of a community. The downward tendency shown in the table is therefore a pleasing commentary upon the efforts of various organizations, notably the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, and upon Public Health administration in general. In considering this matter, however, it must be remembered that New Zealand is particularly fortunate in having economic conditions under which poverty is rare, and which make, therefore, for the preservation of life at this tender age. Infectious Diseases. Infectious diseases generally have declined during the year, and with the exception of diphtheria and mild epidemic influenza there has been no extensive outbreak. Excluding influenza, the total number of cases of infectious disease notified in 1919 was 8,277, as compared with 9,303 in the preceding year. The following table is submitted as enabling a comparison to be made of the prevalence of the principal infectious diseases during the last five years.

PRINCIPAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES NOTIFIED DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS.

An examination of these figures reveals certain points of interest. Scarlet Fever was unduly prevalent in 1915, 1916, and 1917, attaining epidemic proportions in the middle year of this series. The figures for 1919, it is satisfactory to note, are lower than at any time in the quinquennium under review, and are only 15 in excess of the number recorded for 1914. The disease was responsible for 23 deaths in 1919, giving the very low case mortality of 1"B per cent. Diphtheria still remains too prevalent, although there is every indication that the long-drawn-out epidemic of recent years is now definitely on the wane. The table shows that the

year. Total Number of Deaths. Crude (Actual) Death-rate. Standardized Death-rate. 1910 1911 1912 1913 1.914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 9,639 9,534 9,214 1.0,119 10,148 9,965 10,596 10,528 16,364 10,808 9-71 9-39 8-87 9-47 9-31 9-06 9-64 9-58 14-84 9-51 9-63 9-38 8-87 9-47 9-31 9-09 9-22 9-04 14-66 9-12

Year. Infantile-mortality Rate. Year. Infantile-mortality Rate. 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 (_ 75-20 76-30 82-89 81-08 70-98 67-52 62-10 88-78 67-88 61-60 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 67-73 56-31 51-22 59-17 51-38 50-05 50-70 48-16 48-41 45-26

Disease. 1915. 2,312 1,420 825 1,019 85 10 [ I 1916. 4,278 2,376 806 950 135 1,018 i ! 1917. 1918. 1919. Scarlet fever Diphtheria Enteric fever Tuberculosis Cerebro-spinal meningitis Poliomyelitis 2,755 5,458 653 1,521 42 54 1,654 5,539 423 1,072 159 6 1,521 3,499 477 984 96 11 L_ Totals 5,671 9,563 10,483 8,853 6,588