RECENT EPIDEMIC

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 140, 10 December 1918, Page 8

RECENT EPIDEMIC

DOMINION DEATH ROLL

INCOMPLETE FIGURES.

Statistics prepared by tb« Registrargeneral for the months of October, November, and down to 6th December show that the registrations of deaths from influenza and pneumonia in the four metropolitan areaa have been as follows :—Auckland 967, Wellington 383, Christchurch 443, Dunedin 241; total 2034. ,' , Speaking to a Post reporter to-day the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister of Public Health, stated that th© above figures were contained in a purely interim report, representing registrations , only, not the actual number of deaths, and could therefore only be regarded as incomplete. He had been in oommuni■ca,tion on the subject with the BegistrarTGeneral, who stated that in the case of Wellington particularly the registration of deaths caused by the epidemic was by no means complete, the registrations being made daily now being far in excess of normal. This showed unfortunately that there were still many deaths to be recorded which were not included in the above figures. Tho came applied more or less to Christchurch and Dunedin. In the case of Auckland the number of deaths being registered there daily was rapidly approaching normal, so that the total given for the Auckland metropolitan area might be regarded as representing approximately the true position. The figures, added the Minister, •were mainly incomplete, and the public therefore should not accept them until he was able to give the true total, which he would do at the earliest possible moment. , <