Segar. — The Population of New Zealand. 449 



CONVERGENCY OF AGE-DISTRIBUTION. 



The falling-off in the number of people living as we rise 

 from any year of age to a greater one may be spoken of 

 as the convergency of the age-distribution, and the age- 

 distribution may be said to be more or less convergent 

 according as the numbers fall off more or less rapidly as 

 we ascend to the greater ages. In a stationary state the 

 convergency of the age-distribution will depend on the rates 

 of mortality of the people at the several ages ; the more 

 favourable to life the rates are the less will be the con- 

 vergency of age-distribution. When the actual age-distri- 

 bution of a population is more convergent than the corre- 

 sponding stationary distribution the population at the various 

 ages are generally increasing, for at each age there is 

 generally a smaller number living than will survive to that 

 age from amongst those of any less age. Conversely, if the 

 population at the several ages is increasing the actual age- 

 distribution must be more convergent than for the stationary 

 state. These facts are verified by an examination of any 

 growing population, and Table II. shows that, in New Zea- 

 land, the convergency of age-distribution beyond the fifteenth 

 year was very much greater at the last census than it would 

 be in a stationary state. It is because of this age-distribution 

 of population that the total population of New Zealand has 

 continued to increase rapidly of late years, in spite of the 

 fact that the annual number of births has not been in- 

 creasing. 



Such a state of age - distribution has in general been 

 brought about by a growing annual number of births in the 

 past. The people of reproductive ages generally produce a 

 number of children sufficiently in excess of their own num- 

 bers for the survivors to the reproductive age to be greater 

 than the number of their parents, and this goes on continu- 

 ally. In the case of new countries, however, this is not 

 a complete explanation ; but this matter will be again ad- 

 verted to. 



The Youth of the Population of New Zealand. 



A perusal of Table I. will show that New Zealand has a 

 larger proportion of young people and a very much smaller 

 proportion of old people than either England or France, so 

 that the average age in New Zealand is very much smaller 

 than in either of these other countries. Indeed, the table 

 shows that more than half of New Zealand's population was, 

 at the time of the 1891 census, under twenty years of age, 

 whereas in the case of France there was scarcely more than 

 half under thirty years of age ; and in the stationary state 

 29 



