EXPECTATION OF LIFE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25458, 12 February 1944, Page 4

EXPECTATION OF LIFE

LONGEVITY IN THE DOMINION LOW INFANT MORTALITY RATE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 11. “ New Zealand is entitled to feel proud of her position in the expectation of life tables prepared by the League of Nations Office, a summary of which appeared in a recent cablegram from New York,” said the Minister in Charge of the Registrar-gene-ral’s Department, Mr W. E. Parry, today. The tables had justifiably cedited the people of the Dominion with having the longest expectation of life of any nationality. A man in New Zealand lived on the average 69.46 years and a woman 66.92. A report on the league’s figures had been furnished by the registrar-general in collaboration with the Government Statistician, Mr Parry said, and this emphasised the part that the low infant mortality rate played in the result. “We looked after our babies,” the Minister added, “ and in that way we are entitled to say that we led the world. The report also refers to the birth rate, pointing out that the decline reached its lowest ebb in 1935, since when there has been a small but steady increase to 1940. Then, no doubt as a result of the war, there was a marked improvement.”

The figures as cited by the League organisation and accepted by Mr Parry have, as was pointed out in our editorial columns, presumably been reversed. In all countries in the ’world for which statistics are available, excepting only India, females enjoy a greater expectation of life than men. The latest figures for New Zealand, given in the Official Year Book, are for the period 1934-38, when the expectation of life for females was 68.45 years and for males 65.46 years.