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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1508, 24 January 1901, Page 18

Documents inscribed on. plates of baked clay have been found which, are undoubtedly wills drawn in legal form dealing with the transfer and bequeathing of property, and which date back to 3800 B.C. The opium war, which was declared against China by Great Britain in 1839, was responsible for the opening of that nation to the world’s commerce by means of the treaty ports which were afterwards established. The vital statistics for December show that the births and deaths and the death-rate per 1000 of population at the four large centres, with their suburbs, were as follow:—Auckland, 109 births, 44 deaths (0.84 per 1000); Wellington, 92 births, 25 deaths (0.52 per 1000) • Christchurch. 98 births. 39 deaths' (0.86 per 1000); Dunedin, 103 births, 40 deaths (0.80 per 1000). By excluding ‘the suburban boroughs, the Auckland death-rate is increased to 1.02 per 1000, the Christchurch rate is not altered, and the rates at Wellington and Dunedin are reduced to 0.51 and 0.59 per 1000 respectively. The total births in the above boroughs amounted to 402, against 406 in -November—a decrease of 4. The deaths in December were 148—a decrease of 21 on the number in November. Of the total deaths, males contributed 69, females 79. Forty-two of the deaths were of children under live years of age, being 28.38 per cent, of the whole number; 38 of these were under one year of age. There were thirty-six deaths of persons of 65 years and up-wards.