DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

Otago Witness, Issue 2848, 14 October 1908, Page 89

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

«. CAMPS FOR CURED CONSUMPTIVES. i MARRIAGES AND THE BIRTH- | RATE. ; SOME SIGNIFICANT STATISTICS. (Fkom Cite Ot^n Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, October 7. 1 The annual report of the Public Health Department opens with a lengthy treatise on consumption. It refers specially to the ca?e ot the consumptive from the the Waikato Sanatorium en route to Wellington who was recently refused lodgings in Onehunga. Vainly he sought a lodging, and although he had money enough to pay, he could find a bed nowhere save in an outhouse. From pillar to post did he wander next day till finally he found shelter in an hotel where he died. " I wish to proclaim it as forcibly as I can," says Dr Masonj " that the man who has spent a few months in a well-ordered sanatorium is a safer neighbour, 'even though he be still ill, than the sufferer who has no institutional instruction, though maybe he seems well. Destruction of the sputum, care of the person, and all that proper living really spells has been so dinned into them at the sanatorium that it is next to ' impossible for ■ them to behave in* such a way as to endanger the health of others." On the text of " work for the cured," Br Mason preaches a fermon on an outdoor life. Ex-patients of a sanatorium can now get this outdoor life at the '• labouv camp " at Waipa by engaging in the healthy occupation of treeplanting. On the question of a larger encampment, a report is submitted from Dr Makgil!. He seems to think that Taupo is the ideal site for such a camp. The climate is ideal, the scenery very beautiful, and work could be found "there for a large number, of men for many years to come. Statistics ix-om i-^te ItepjisTz-ar-genei-i- l*s Department are incorporated in the report. They are for the year ended December, 1907. In regard to the vital statistics. Dr Mason points out that the average number of children to a marriage is still on the decline. Last year the proportion of births to every marriage solemnised in the preceding year was 3.21. while in 1907 it was 3.15. '' Whatever we may think if this almost universal decline in the birth rate," says ) Dr Mason. " I confess ihat I see no way j in which the State can interfere to check , it. Commissioner? have sat in various : parts of the world and have discussed { the subject in all its phases. Volumino us reports have been written, but it has J all been as a beating of the wind. To I my mind the remedy is not to be found in reports, but in a national awakening and an increase in patriotism. All sorts of cures have been advocated, such as grants of land to parents having over a certain number in the family, but I have little fai4h in such remedies. The death rate has intreayed to 10.95, which is the i highest since 1883, though it is still much below that, of older countries. The death rate amongst children wan very ! heavy last year, 97 out of every 1000 1 males born and 80 out of every 1000 , females dyins; before attaining the age of one year. That is one in 10 male children and one in 12 females. If." says Dr Masoa. '• we group those deaths due to diarrhoee and enteritis, which is much the same, along with marasmus, which often spells nothing more than bad feeding, we have 861 out of a total of 1811 due to ignorance, want of care, and imj pure milk. Replace these with know- : ledge, love, and a clean milk supply, and much would have to be subtracted from I this awful total, and ypt New Zealand j shows less .sacrifice than any othqr 1 country. Take Russia, with an average rate over 10 years of 268 deaths under one year to 1000 births. England and Wales 147. and we find the Dominion right at the bottom with 83.9 per 1000 butlr-. Though the toll exacted be Mnall iv comparison, yet it is too great. The earlier notification of births insi.sted on by Ihe act of 1907, v.hich requires a birth in a city or borough to be registered within 72 hours, is sure to effect much good." Influenza claimed 223 \ictims in 1907. as against 132 in 1906. Detailed acounts of the two cases of I plague which occurred in Auckland are given. The death-rate from consumption increased slightly last year, and there was also an increase in the deaths from cancer. There were no fewer than 674 deaths from this disease. The number of births regi.-tered during 1907 wa= 25.094. or 27.30 in every 1000 persons living. The number of births is 842 in excess of that for the year 1906. an increase of 3.47 per cent. From 1882 until 1899 there was a regular fall in. the birth-rate. The number of births, registered in a year reached 19.846 in 1884, and after falling to 17.876 in 1892, has risen to 25,094 in 19Q7 A

One- table given in the report shows that although New Zealand had in 1900 the lowest birth-rate in Australasia, the rate for 190T was higher than that of New South Wales, Victoria, and South • Australia. A declining birth-rate is I noticeable in many civilised countries, ! and attention has been drawn by statis- ! ticians and political economists to the ! serious consequences that may result. That fertility- among women in New Zealand is decreasing, from whatever causes, further facts will tend to show. Taking the number of married women in New Zealand at what may be considered the child-bearing ages — i.e., from 15 to 45 years inclusive, — as shown by each census since 1878, and for the same years the number of legitimate births (excluding plural) registered, the birth-rale per 1000 married women of the above-stated ages is easily found, and is shown to be steadily declining. In 1878 the rate was 357 per 1000, in 1896 it had fallen to 252, in^lGOl to 244, and in 1906 to 228, or, in otfier words, in 1878 oEe married woman of the ages specified in every three gave, birth to a child, while in 1906 the rate ! was less than one in four. The figures j for each census year are given below. | There is good ground or reflection on the I part of our law-makers i^ several of these tables. Members of Parliament can j make ' laws and even a Health Depart- ! ment, but in spite of the latter the I deaths increase and the births decrease, j while, as for the laws themselves, they j may, by increasing the cost pi living and a man's responsibilities, ever conduce to decay in a nation. For instance, one table in the report shows for a period of 25 years the numbers of married women ' at the quinquennial periods of age bei longing to the full team (15 to 45 years) 1 with the proportions that those numbers j bear to every 100 married women living ■ (15-45. These proportions are found to j have diminished appreciably at the ! earlier ages (15-20, and 20-25) but the numbers living are much smaller at those ages than at the higher ones (25-30 and onwards to 40-45), and the effect of this j lesser number of wives at the lower- ages j in reducing the birth-rate would not ue so much as might at first be thought proj bable. It is, however, undoubtedly a j fact, says Dr Mason, that to have a , growing proportion of wives at the earlier I productive ages is the best position, but ! it is not the one which obtains at present in New Zealand. One table shows that England and Wales for 1900-2 stands as having had the lowest fertility of all the I European countries specified, except I France. New Zealand shows a little above England, and in respect of xius- ; tralia, somewhat higher than South Ausj tralia, New South Wales, and Victoria. I Yet another table gives the birth-rates j for 10 years in Great Britain, and cer- , tain countries of the European Continent [ are also given. From the^ same source i the rates in England and Wales and | Scotland are higher than those in New • Zealand, but the rate for Ireland is lower. France has the lowest rate of all quoted. The New Zealand birthrate fell from 34-35 per lOO€f>>f tfce'popn- • lation in 1885 to 27.22 in 1905. Last | year the births of 1157 children were illegitimate, thus 46 in every 1000 children born were born out of wedlock, as against 47 in 1906. i