INFANTILE MORTALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 11

INFANTILE MORTALITY.

NEW ZEALAND'S HATE. LOWEST ON RECORD. In his Monthly Abstract of Statistics, the Government Statistician says the effect of the constantly declining birthrate in Xew Zealand has been largely neutralised by the concentrated efforts that have been made in the direction of the preservation of infant life. The protection and welfare of children in early life is recognised as a national responsibility, and in this respect New Zealand has established and maintained a success which is unrivalled in any other country. Her?, too. lies, to some extent, the secret of the extremely low death-rate commented- upon in a preceding paragraph, as the infantile mortality of a country has some considerable bearing upon the total death-rate: The number of infants under one year of age whose deaths were registered during 192-5 was 1,125, this number being two less than the remarkably low figure of 1924 (1,127). The infan-tile-mortality rate per 1000 live births

reached the phenomenally low figure of 39.96, thus establishing another new record. The previous best figure was 40.23, registered for 1924. Next to New Zealand, witli its record low rate of 39.90 per 1000 comes Norway, with a rate of 53; then come Australia (57). Holland (571, Sweden (601. Switzerland (01). Italy (71), Irish Free State (72). South Africa (74). England and Wales (75), United States (77), Canada (79), Denmark (So), Northern Ireland (So), Finland (92), France (96), Scotland (9S). Countries with appalling infantile mortality are Uruguay (10(5 per 1000). Belgium (107). Germany (10ft). Austria (139). Spain (14S). Japan (I«3>, Jamaica .(1711, Ceylon (ISO), and Hungary (HW).