SUICIDE STATISTICS.

Grey River Argus, 23 September 1911, Page 2

SUICIDE STATISTICS.

The sucidc habiib is sometimes regarded a.> "a malady if modernity,'' and s used as an argument that racial degeneracy is upon us. It is interesting, .therefore, ito fi-nd that Mr G. H. Knibbs, Federal Sta&ist, in. a paper .read in Sydney, shows that the frequency of suicide is on the decreasd in Australia, ami that -ib™ rate of increase in other countries is climiinislung. He finds .tlxa'j:! .'only a little over 1" percent of deia.v.hs in Australia /are due ito this cause, and that the frequency of suicide' in that country is 'but 'two-third - that of Europe. In Europe at the present, time- 'the num:ber per million committing- suicide is 164, und, if tho indications of the past halif-ccnltury are maintained, it will be 165 in 1914, but will take 't ©the year 1925 t oreach 167. An examination of the statistics furnishes sonnet interesting 1 ,; coifcluisions. /Perhaps ithe most peculiar is that most suicides do not occur in depressing wciavher, Ay.he.ii in. -consequence. the spark of vitality it aiti it's- lowest, but when the weather conditions shoiijd apparently promote a friendly ff&linff to the world at large. >Tn .b'ojiih Europe and Australia tlic maximum" rates are.

coincident with summer, .nad th? minimum nates with winter. One -ezplana•.lioni is that in bright "happy" weather the person with suicidal tendctnci.ee is oppressed by th conitrast ■bd'avecin his own state of min-d and the joyous condition of Nature. "With suicide, as with other things, mental activity is the root of all-evil. Suicide is caitching, i.n the sense '-that one suicide may lead to another. There can >be an epidemic of suicides in certain areas, just as thn*e. are epidemics of measels. The unbalanced mind is, prone to suggestion. A recent cable stated ithat a man, .after having seen a pictorial representation of a father murdering has ■ daughter, went home and killed his own child, and no doubt rnumerous other cases of imkaticin could (be found.