THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, 16th AUGUST, 1930. VITAL STATISTICS.

Waipa Post, Volume 41, Issue 3189, 16 August 1930, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, 16th AUGUST, 1930. VITAL STATISTICS.

IN his annual report the DirectorGeneral of Health draws attention to the fact that the birth rate for 1929 was the lowest on record for New Zealand—only 19.01 per 1000 of mean population. For 1928 the rate—then also the lowest on record—was 19.56. In 1920 the rate was 25.09 per 1000; in a decade, that is to say, it has fallen to the extent of 6 per 1000, or by nearly 25 per cent. The comparative figures for the intervening years show that the decline has been steady. The position is none the more satisfactory because in so many parts of the world a similar tendency has been or is in operation. It is a curious circumstance surely which is brought out in the report of the Director-Gen-eral of Health that the birth rate among the Maoris is now not far short of double that among the European population. For 1928 it was 28 per 1000, or 45 per cent higher than the general birth rate of that year. As between the two races the tables in this matter seem to be turned with a vengeance. It would, of course, be idle to urge that the fact that New

Zealand has the lowest death rate in the world, and has reduced infant mortality to a figure which is the envy of other communities, is a perfectly adequate compensation for the decline of the birth-rate, an unfortunate accompaniment of which is the shrinkage in the natural increase of New Zealand's population. Statistics for the year 1928 show that out of forty countries only nine had a lower birth rate than New Zealand, tnough at the same time only fifteen had a higher rate of natural increase. Among the nine referred to were Britain, Germany, France, and some other European countries. South Africa, Canada, and Australia were a 1! ahead of New Zealand in the matte of birth rate. Why this rate should be as low as it is in New Zealand is a question that has not been specifically answered. This country might be thought to possess all the attributes that would be conducive to a really healthy birth rate. Dr Valintine seems in his report to imply that a cause of the decline in the birth rate is an increasing tendency in the direction of the avoidance of the responsibility of parenthood. He quotes an interesting commentary by Dr Riley in which the latter emphasises the need in New Zealand of an adjustment of values. That there is .such a need there may be little room for doubt, but how the adjustment is to be brought about is another matter. The prospects in that direction are not hopeful, for the restlessness of the spirit of the age increases rather than diminishes. Admittedly the birth-rate question has to be viewed from several angles. The recognition of the value of every child born into the community is finely attested in what has been accomplished in reducing the rate of infant mortality. Disease in every form is being attacked with increasing vigour, and a reduction in the death rate helps toward the maintenance of that important factor, the natural increase in population represented in the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths. But what similar effort is being made to eliminate a contributing factor to the death rate which does not come within the category of diseases of the ordinary kind, though the results help to keep the medical profession busy ? A tally of reported motor accidents for the first seven months of the present year shows that these resulted in the death of 134 persons within that period, and in serious injury, requiring hospital or medical attention, in the case of 1500 others, to say nothing of the much greater number of cases of minor injury. The Director of Public Hygiene says, no doubt very sagely, that the correction of faulty habits would result in a lower death rate from various causes. Clearly enough, faulty habits and a faulty way of thinking are much to blame for the fact that the death rate is kept up through causes that are largely preventable.