BIRTHS AND DEATHS

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 7

BIRTHS AND DEATHS

A SHORTAGE OF BABIES. The number of births registered in New Zealand during 1921 was larger than in any preceding year, with the exception oi 1920, but the 'birth-rate was the second lowest ever recorded in tho Dominion. Tho births for the year numbered 28.569. The rate was 23.34 per 1,000 of the population. The decline of New Zealand's birth-rate (says the ' Dominion ') is a serious matter. Tn "the period of 1906 to 1910 the average annual rale was 27.06, and in the period 1911 to 1915 it was 25.98. The rale fell during the war years, and reached 21.54 in 1919. This 'was. tlic lowest rate in the history of the Dominion : but the conditions were exceptional. Tens of thousands of the men were overseas with the Expeditionary Force during 1918 and' a large part of' 1919. People who etudy the figures looked confidently for an improvement in the rate, and they were not disappointed, for the 1920 birth-rate wan 25.3. Tho fall in the 1921 rate is unexpected. The reduction in the birth-rate us cornpared with the figures for the years immediately before the war means that New Zealand has a shortage of over 3,000 babies in 1921.

Tho births registered in the four city areas in February numbered 739, as against 818 in January. LOWEST DEATH-RATE ON RECORD. New Zealand's death-rate for the year 1921 was low enough to constitute a record. It was 8.73 per 1,000 of the moan population, the next lowest being 8.87 in 1912. The number of deaths registered in the year was 10,684, while the number of births was 28,569.

The deaths in the four city areas of the Dominion during February numbered 285, as against 328 in January. Of the total deaths, males contributed 151, females 154. Thirty-six of the deaths that occurred in February were of children under five years of age, and thirty of theso were under one year of ago.