VITAL STATISTICS FOR DECEMBER.

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 17, 21 January 1881, Page 2

VITAL STATISTICS FOR DECEMBER.

+. The Registrar-General's report on the vital statistics of New Zealand for the month of December, 1880, shows Wellington, as usual, far away at the head of all the cities and towns in regard to the birth-rate, 92 births being recorded, with a population of 21,582 ; while Dnnedin, with a population of 23,959, had 80 births ; Christchurch (population 15,156), 53; and Auckland (population 15,022), 45. Among the New Zealand cities, Auokland had the heaviest death-rate, the total number being 27, and the proportion per 1000 of population I*Bo. In Wellington the number was 36, and the rate 167 per 1000; in Christchurch 20 deaths occurred, or 1*32 per 1000; while Dunedin had the very small death-rate of 0*54 per 1000, only 13 deaths being recorded. Ab showing the huge preponderance of births over deaths in this colony, it may be mentioned that in the fifteen chief cities and towns 463 births and 149 deaths occurred during December. In the four cities (Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin,) 270 births and 96 deaths were registered in December, aa against 239 births and 74 deaths in November, both these showing an increase, the former of 31 and the latter of 22. The mortality from zymotic diseases was much greater in December than during the previous month, the numbers being respectively 29 and 14. The increase was due to the large number of deaths of children from dysentery and diarrnoßa. Of these, 11 occurred in Wellington, 6 in Christchurch, and 3] in Anckland, but none in Dunedin. From typhoid fever 3 deaths occurred, 1 in Auckland, 1 in Chriatchuroh, and 1 in Lyttelton. The deaths in December from con.

sumption exhibited a decrease of 50 per cent., but there was an increase in the deaths from diseases ef the digestive organs. Ot the total number of deaths, 84 were those of males, and 65 of females ; 78 (or 52 per cent, of the whole) were of children under 5 years of age, and of these 61 were of children under 1 year old. A death from rheumatic fever occurred at Auckland, and one from intemperance at Danedin. In Wellington apoplexy caused 3 deaths ; heart disease, 4 ; and jaundice, cancer, and hip-joint disease, each 1. In the colony generally constitutional diseases showed a decrease and local diseases an increase in December, as compared with the preceding month.