THE HEALTH DEPARTMENTS REPORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13286, 19 September 1906, Page 8

THE HEALTH DEPARTMENTS REPORT.

INTERESTING FACTS AND FIGURES. ?*

fur TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL correspondent.]

Wellington-, Tuesday. % Lv the annual report of the chief health officer (Dr. Mason), which was presented to '4 Parliament to-day, Dr. Mason's scheme of • medically inspecting school children is set '•• forth, together with the statement that of" 117,000 children attending the colony's ele- -■'■ mentary schools only 27,327 live in the four Vlarge centres, so that even if the children "' there were looked after. a " great number T\ would still go uninspected. ,\"; The movement in the direction of provid- ■•- ing open-air treatment for consumptives is, Wfc states Dr. Mason, steadily progressing. ■'<"'■' Wellington, Taranaki, Nelson, Invercargill, : V;f and Waimate have made provision for open- -■• air treatment, and many other districts are " .at the parting of the ways. The indigent "*?' consumptive is now receiving more attention, and Dr. Mason urges the importance of) providing >. light men t for those ;, V \ phthisis, patients, who have sufficiently, re-. )M covered to re-enter the workaday world. : .- The chief medical officer recapitulates the *§ ! main points of his recent exposure of patent medicine frauds, and expresses his opinion , that a law ; having for its object the suppression of harmful so-called remedies would ,' do good. .- In the case of such diseases as - consumption and cancer the wily adver- '':'... tiser of a cure steals not only the sufferer's Jj money, but. his only„ : chance of recovery. At a time when removal of the tumour or a sojourn in a sanatorium might have effect- ' I ed a restoration of health, the' poor vie'--' tim is "wasting his money and losing th« "* I tide.". ..' ; ''■' " "-'{"■ ' • ■~ e

A satisfactory improvement in the birth rate is -the feature of the vital statistics. The births registered last year totalled 23,682, or 27.22 per thousand, an increase of 4.02 upon the previous' year. ' The raid was the highest since 1894. By analysis of the proportion of births to marriages it is found that regarded annually or decimally there is a decided fall in the number of • births'per marriage. Last year's rate was 6.24. Compared with the rest of Australasia New Zealand comes third, for the highest birth place. Deaths numbered 8061' last year, this being the lowest rate since 1887. The rate per thousand was 9.27 as against 9.57 in the previous year. Dealing with causes of death, the report places tubercle in the first place, 211 deaths out of a total of 646 in the four centres being caused by phthisis or other tubercular disease. Cancer caused 191 deaths, a slight increase on the previous year, and 8 per cent., of the , total death rate, for the whole colony. ■