HALF CENTURY REVIEW

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 11 April 1927, Page 4

HALF CENTURY REVIEW

ACCIDENTAL DEATH. An interesting feature of the Febru Abstract of Statistics is a review of a , dental death figures for the period If 1925.

During the fifty-four years under view (says the Statistician) the ann rate decreased from 10.27 per 10.000 mean population for the quinquenni 1872-76 to 4.50 per 10,000 for the ft years 1922-25. This was a most remt able decrease, and represents a decline nearly 45 per cent., or 0.8 per cent i annum. An outstanding feature is | steady fall from quinquennium to quj quennium, the figures showing that rate decreased 36 per cent, during t first twenty-five years and 40 per ce over the remaining years of the period The decrease shown in the earelier ye is to be expected, as many improveme introduced with the object of making I Less subject to accidental injury are operation, and, generally speaking, c ditions to-day are certainly not to compared with the hardships endured d iiig the embryo stages of development the colony. Hazardous employment road and railway construction and in bo ’ felling, lack of means of transportation suiting in more hazardous journeyi, a crude methods of artificial heating a i lighting, had the effect of bringing ab< an abnormally large number of de* from drowning, burns, and fractures. ’ conditions gradually improved, no did death rate from these causes, with a c responding decline for the general rate all accidental causes. That this decre is still in evidence in recent years o goes to show the efficiency of the m sures taken to cope with these matU made up. as they are, of a niultifarii number of causes, all peculiar to their o environment. Deaths from traumatism by motor vi ales are steadily increasing, the toll 1925 being 108, as compared with 94 1924,. while the rate rose from 7.24 100,000 to 8.12. The death rate fl this type of accident has increased 44 cent, during 1921, 12 per cent, occur: during, the year 1925. The ever-incn ing congestion of our public streets and expanding employment of motor tra portion generally have been great fact in producing tins increase. Traumat by railways shows a slight upward mo ment in the rate, no doubt the result the increased number of collisions betw motor vehicles and railway trains, deaths from which are charged to heavier and more powerful vehicle. The number of deaths accredited to U mat ism from tramways and from ot vehicles allows a decided decrease, in the latter class is the direct conseque of a< gpaat falling-off in the use now b of horse-drawn vehicles. Although conditions controlling > dental deaths differ to a pronounced deg in different countries, it is neverthelesi considfirable interest to compare the e rates for the various principal caul ,This has- been done for New Zealand, 'tralia,. Gaaada, England, and Valea, I the United States for the latest aval* {year, in. each case, and the figures d •some interesting features. ! Taking a rate to cover all accidei [causes,. the United States ranks * [first, with a death rate of 76.4 per 1 > jof population. Canada comes second « a. rate 53.0, closely followed bj A i tralia with 52.8. New Zealand is next the list with 46.7; while England Wales, 34.1 per 100,000, enjoys the to’ posiiMttij.. Tsaumatism by motor vehicles > s tremely high in the United States, t being a considerable drop to the esft—Australia. The New Zealand approximates this latter figure, aD snierably higher than the number of ada and England and Wales. A r®® able feature of the figures dents from crushing is the l° w i tained for England and matism by railways and by Deaths from drowning much more numerous «n the t ire® nions than in the United King United States; while, as imght * ed, the converse holds true in t e deaths arising out of accidents and quarries. . Qr In comparison with the < er tries under review. New Zealand { lowest rates for accidental and traumatism by math 11 e -' • New Zealand rates for deaths thetic, etc., and traumatism compare very favourably »the other countries dealt