THE REGISTRY RECORDS

Evening Star, Issue 17311, 26 March 1920, Page 4

THE REGISTRY RECORDS

ODD FACTS AND'FIGURES. THE DOMINION'S PI/ACE. The latest figures from the New Zealand Official Year Book show the birthrates of the metropolitan areas of_ the Dominion as under : Dunedin, 18.69 per 1,000 of population: Christchurch, 20.22; Wellington, 25.15.; Auckland, 21..77. Taking" the whole of the four metropolitan areas the birth-rate becomes 21.20 per 1,000, while the Dominion rate •is 23.44. Wellington has tho highest rate —Dunedin the lowest. Some explanation of this lies in the difference in age constitution. The ages of the parents of the great majority of children born in any year range from 25 to 50 yer.i-p, and it is found that this group forms to the total population a proportion of 41.48 per cent, iu Auckland; in Wellington, 46.19 per cent. ; in Christchurch, 40.66 per cent; and in Dunedin, only 56.58 per cent. These proportions of the relative youth of parents are clearly reflected in the comparative birth-rates. New Zealand's birth-rate is the third lowest in the Australasian group. The figures per 1.000 are as under : Queensland. 23.37; New South Wales, 26.53; Tasmania, 25.91: South Australia, 25.80; New Zealand, 23.44; Western Australia, 22.84; Victoria, 22.29. The birth-rate in the United Kingdom in 1917 was only 18.2 per 1,000. j SEX PROPORTION..AND WAR. j With the exception of one year there has always been a preponderance, of males in tho number of children born in New Zealand. This preponderance, shown in average ratio over a period of 10 years (1906-1915) amounted to 55; that is, for every 1,000 females, 1,055 males were bom. The English Registrar-general's reports for 1915 and 1916 contain interesting figures as to the influence of the war on sex-proportions iu birth, and it is seen that the proportion of male to female births is considerably higher in the pe-riod affected by the war than in preceding years. In New Zealand (the Year Book continues) where the numbers dealt with \ are much, smaller, and where there is con- ] siderablo fluctuation in the sex proportions, there is nothing in the feu res for the war period to indicate nature's supposed influence in restoring the. sex proportions of the population when disturbed by war. Indeed, the figures for 1017 and 1918 show an abnormally 6m;?ll excess of male, over female birth's. PLUEAL BIRTHS. Tkew were 294 cases of twin births (sdo clnkjren) and three cases (if ti-i>l"+> registered in 1918. This w;:| the lowest 'twin" record for five years, the n>ur-s ?nH ,£* .P efiod **'"£": 350 case* in 1914 302 in 1915, 523 in 1916, and 312 in 1917. During tha seven years (1912-18) there were 15' cases of triplets. Iu three all the children were males, in three cases all were females, in three cas°s theiv were two males a rut one female, and in each of the remaining six cases two of tho three, born were females. ILLEGITIMACY. J%o, irt 'r S 0I ", 1;179 <&ildren (SSB males and 591 females) were illegitimate in 1918; thus 46 m every 1,000 children leistered were born out of wedlock, as against 41 m 1917, 40 in 1915, 41 in 1915 giving birth to these. 357 or 30.54 per cent were under 21 years of age. Over .no last live years the a vera see in this respect was 35 per cent. The average rate of illegitimacy far W Zealand for 10 years'was 4.3*3 ww lt Hh° f aU S hs; that of the Common! wealth was 5.48 per cent.