MORTALITY RATES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12559, 23 September 1926, Page 4

MORTALITY RATES

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND AN INTERESTING COMPARISON. On tRe occasion of the reading of a §aper by Mr L. S. Polden, A.I.A. in ydney, an interesting discussion took place regarding the fact that the rates of mortality were shown by the paper to be lower in New Zealand than in Australia. it was pointed out by more than one of the speakers that though' there was a tendency in several countries to exhibit a falling death rate, the mortality of New Zealand was lower than elsewhere. Australia, though showing higher rates than New Zealand, was improving at a faster rate than the Dominion.

The president (Mr Latham) considered that these facts should put the Australians upon their pride to hasten the improvement Mr A. T. Traversi, of Wellington (who was present), pointed out that mortality tables were not strictly a measure of vitality but rather of the interplay of the two forces, vitality and environment, taking the latter expression to mean all the things working against- vitaltiy. Why, he asked, did European peoples exhibit so lew a rate of mortality on coming to Australia and New Zealand? Simply because of the easier environment. In other words, the European environment was much severe; there they had had the most sovere of all environments, namely, contact with other raecs by way of war, economic struggle, and disease. Europe facilitated all these things in a superlative degree, and consequently the European populations generated a large reserve energy which, upon transference to Australia and New Zealand, where there were no other populations to struggl with or to rub against, and where there was ease, wealth, and room, manifested itself at once in the guise of a reduced rate of mortality. The historic struggles of the European peoples, particularly , the armed struggles, had not only made Europeans tough, but had conferred upon them the supreme gift of organisation, which they at once commenced to use in these colonies to make the environment still easier by means of drainage boards, doctors, water supply, etc., thus further lower ing the, death rates. But, he asked, could a force thus display itself without loss? Was it not like a cyclist freewheeling downhill? This was the paradox confronting us in these lands We gained our power out of suffering, and now we were bound to do all we could to eliminate suffering, which was the very mainspring of our strength, and to keep alive as many of the unfit as possible. These would breed back into the race. If requested, Nature would produce a man who could only exist by the aid of props—doctors and the like—and were we sure that we were not heading in this direction Therefore ho (Mr Traversi) did not know whether to praise Now Zealand or Australia Tn New Zealand few were born and many of them were kept alive—few were called and many wre chosen in Australia the chosen were not quite so many Which of these two merited the laurel from the sublime arbiter. Nature?