I.—ll

4

Death-rates of Married Men and Orphanhood of Children. "The Eegistration of Births and Deaths Act Amendment Act, 1882," requires that on the registration of the death of any person the age of each living child of the deceased shall be entered in the register. The particulars so recorded for several years have been tabulated, and the detailed results are shown in the two tables on pages 62 and 63 of the " Statistics of New Zealand, 1893." One of those tables deals with the year 1893 only; the other gives the aggregate results for the four years 1890 to 1893 inclusive. They show the total number of men who died at each year of age from twenty to sixty-five, the number of married men (husbands and widowers) stated in the registers to have died childless, the number who died leaving children living, and the number and ages of the children so left. From the first table it is found that during 1893 there died 1,610 men between the ages of twenty and sixty-five, of whom 836 were married; 701 married men left children at their deaths, while 135 are stated to have been childless. The proportions of married men and bachelors in every 100 males dying were 51-93 and 48-07 respectively. The proportions at the census of 1891 for the total number living at the above ages were : Married men, 56-81 per cent.; bachelors, 42-92 per cent.; and unspecified, 0-27 per cent. The differences here shown would tend to prove that the death-rate amongst married men at the ages under review is lighter than amongst bachelors; but it must be borne in mind that when registering a death the informant is not always in possession of full particulars as to the conjugal condition of the deceased, and that therefore the number of married men as shown in the tables may be somewhat short of the actual fact. Assuming the ratio of married men at twenty to sixty-five to the total male population at those ages to be the same in 1893 as obtained at the census of 1891, the death-rate is found to be 8-69 per 1,000 living, whereas the rate for all males at the same age-period was in 1891 9-60 per 1,000.

The total number of children left by the 836 married men who died in 1893 was 3,352. Of these, 1,577 were under fifteen years of age, 673 between fifteen and twenty-one, and 1,031 over twenty-one, leaving seventy-one in respect of whom no information could be obtained. Thus the average number of children of all ages left by each married man dying between twenty and sixty-five would be 4-01, or 1-89 under fifteen, 0-80 between fifteen and twenty-one, 1-23 over twenty-one years of age, and 0-09 of unspecified age. Discarding the number (135) of fathers said to have died childless, the average number of children left by each of the others would be 4-78 of all ages —2-25 under fifteen, 0-96 between fifteen and twenty-one, 1-47 over twenty-one, and 0-10 of unspecified age. Almost identical results are obtained if the figures for the four years 1890-93 be used instead of those for 1893 only.

An important fact brought out by the statistics quoted above is that every year upwards of 1,500 children under fifteen years of age are left fatherless—how many without adequate means of living it is not possible to say.

1891. 1893. Ages. Total Number rr„+<,i °L Moachir S NnmbSof period. Male Deaths-Death-rate per 1,000 living. Estimated Number of Married Men living. Number of Deaths of Married Men. Death-rat' per 1,000 living. 20-25 .. 25-30 .. 30-35 .. 35-40 .. 40-45 .. 45-50 .. 50-55 .. 55-60 .. 60-65 .. 28,337 23,704 22,021 20,513 17,755 17,028 16,770 10,945 7,685 148 108 114 139 139 183 272 252 227 5-22 4-56 5-18 6-78 7-83 10-75 16-22 23-02 29-54 2,473 9,213 13,668 15,052 13,444 13,572 13,534 8,933 6,319 5 45 45 80 87 108 143 139 184 202 4-88 3-29 5-31 6-47 7-96 10-57 15-56 29-12 164,758 1,582 9-60 96,208 836 8-69

Estimated Number of Husbands and Widowers living in 1893. Numl Married; di. >er of VIenwho id Number a] id Ages of C' lildren left. Ages. Total Number of Male Deaths. Childless. Leaving Children. Under 15. 15 to 21. 21 and upward. Unspecified. Total. !0-25 S5-30 10-35 55-40 10-45 15-50 50-55 55-60 50-65 2,473 9,213 13,668 15,052 13,444 13,572 13,534 8,933 6,319 154 161 107 145 131 166 249 216 281 2 14 8 15 9 9 22 19 37 3 31 37 65 78 99 121 120 147 3 61 103 202 308 301 272 196 131 10 55 114 177 164 153 2 41 192 286 510 *6 11 3 61 109 223 365 479 653 665 794 23 12 11) 96,208 1,610 135 701 1,577 673 1,031 71 3,352