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Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



In New Zealand statistics Maoris are excluded, and emi- 

 gration and immigration are to a large extent not taken into 

 account. Every statement cannot be made with an account 

 attached of every small modification that can arise from 

 various sources ; if the statement is correct for all practical 

 purposes, it is sufficient. 



The same liberality of interpretation must be given here 

 as is necessary on all occasions on which effects depending 

 mainly on one or two principal causes, but at the same time 

 subject to various perturbations, are dealt with. 



The Diversity of Age-distribution of Populations. 

 When we compare the age-distributions of the populations 

 of different countries we find a diversity which is at first 

 astonishing. This is sufficiently illustrated, perhaps, in the 

 following table, in which we compare the populations of New 

 Zealand, England, and France — that is, the populations of a 

 new country, an old country with an increasing population, 

 and an old country with an almost stationary population : — 



Table I. — Population, by Age, of New Zealand, England, and 

 France. Percentage in each Group. 



This diversity is found to be considerable even between 

 old countries or between new ones, but is naturallv more 

 marked, as a rule, when old countries are compared with new 

 ones. 



The Stationary Distribution of Population. 



For the purposes of comparison it may be of advantage to 

 consider at once the distribution of the ages of the people 

 which we shall speak of as the " stationary distribution." 



The ages of the people will be said to have a stationary 

 distribution when, on comparing the numbers living at any 

 two specified ages, the number living at the greater of the two 

 ages is equal to the number of those at the less that should 

 survive to reach the greater age. 



