VITAL STATISTICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 978, 28 November 1890, Page 31

VITAL STATISTICS.

_ From the Registrar-General’s vital atatistics for October, 1890, it appears that daring the month there were 94 births in Wellington, 101 in Auckland, 38 in Dunedin, and 24 in Christohuroh. The deaths were : Wellington 29, Dnnedin 34, Auckland 24. Christchurch 10. Tho death rate per 1000 was : 0‘93 in Wellington, I*4l in Dunedin, 0*72 in Auokland, and o*sß in Christchurch. The following remarks apply only to the four principal boroughs The births in October were 257, against 217 in September, an in. crease of 40. The deaths amounted to 97, against 98 in September. There were 19 deaths of persons of 65 years and upwards : 4 males of 86, 71, 69, and 6S, and 2 females of 72 and 67, died at Auckland ; 1 male of 65, and I female of 80, at Wellington ; 1 female of 72 at Christchurch; 5 males of 89, 82, 71, 67, and 66, and 5 females of 82 (2), 67, 66, ana 65, at Dunedin. The mortality from specific febrile or zymotic diseases fell from 9 deaths in September to 5 in Ootober, the last number being the smallest on record for any month except in September, 1889, when there was only 1 death in this class. Of the 5 deaths, 4 were from miasmatic disease*, viz., 2 from scarlet fever—-1 at Aucklund and 1 ac Wellington—l from diphtheria, and I from typhoid fever both at Dunedin. The mortality in this class of diseases is usually lowest about the month of October, after which the number of deaths increases with the increasing temperature. The largest number of deaths recorded in any one month from thesG diseases wa3 76>in March, 1887. Twenty-four deaths were registered in October as having ocourred from constitutional diseases, the same number as in September. Phthisis was more fatal in October, with 13 deaths, against 10 in the previous month ; but cancer caused only 7 deaths against 10 in September. Local diseases caused 52 deaths in the past month, a decrease of 2 on the number in the previous month. Of these, diseases of the nervous system caused 13 deaths, against 14 in September ; diseases of the circulatory system, 7 deaths, against 6 in September ; and diseases of the respiratory Bystem caused 17, an increase of 3 on the number in the previous month. Nine violent deaths were classified, an exceptionally large number in any month. Of these, only 2 were accidental, a child 2 years of age was killed by her father, and 6 persons committed suicide.