EDUCATION AND INFIRMITY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1912, Page 8

EDUCATION AND INFIRMITY

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES Here are some interesting details relating to the. education and infirmity of the people, as disclosed by the -census of 1911, published in the official results. From this it appears that of the people of» all ages whose qualifications were recorded 15.85 per cent, could not read, and of specified ages above five years 4.10 per cent, could not read. Between the ages of five to ten years the census discovered 28,278 persons who could not read ; from ten to fifteen, 314 ; from fifteen to twenty, 233; from twenty to .twenty -five, 240; from twenty-five to thirty, 273; from thirty to thirty-five, 318 ; from thirty-five to forty, 358 ; from forty to forty-five, 383 ; from forty-five to fifty, 494 ; from fifty to fifty-five, 593 ; from fifty-five to sixty, 667 : from sixty to sixty-five, 652 ; from sixty -five to seventy, 831 ; from seventy to seventyfive, 707. - Of the New Zealand-born the figures show that 144,040 of all ages could not read, and that of persons of specified ages 143,981 could not read. Also striking are the figures relating to infirmity — to persons, classed as deaf and dumb, blind, lunatics, and feebleminded. At the date' of the census the specified infirmities were numbered as under: — Deaf and dumb, 301; blind, 482; lunatics, 3741; feeble-minded, 777. The remarkable feature of the return is that showing the number of afflicted up to 20 years of age, as follows*: — Deaf and dumb, 161 ; blind, 48 ; lunatics, 132 ; feeble-minded, 213. The proportion of such afflicted to every ten thousand of the population is 51.94 made up as follows: — Deaf and dumb, 2.99 per 10,000 ; blind, 4.77 (per 10,000 ; lunatics, 36.56 per 10,000; feeble-minded, 7.62 per 10,000. It is interesting to note that of the deaf and dumb population 20 cannot read and write (they are children), 39 are attending Government schools, nine are farm assistants, and 59 (females) are engaged in domestic duties.