224 



Transactions . 



Table I. 



According to this calculation the numlier of native-born lunatics there 

 should have been in this colony at the time of the last census, if the liability 

 to insanity in the native-born were the same as in the rest of the population, 

 would be substantially less than 1,014. Now, the actual number of registered 

 insane of New Zealand birth on the 31st December, 1906, was 988 — a very 

 noteworthy agreement. We may make some allowances for the interval of 

 some months between the time of taking the census and the end of the year, 

 for the possibility of the registered insane including a small proportion of 

 idiots, and for some discrepancy between the census and registration returns, 

 and still the conclusion appears reasonable and certain that the statistics 

 indicate that there is no appreciable difference between those of the popu- 

 lation of this country that were born in New Zealand and those not born in 

 New Zealand with respect to liability to insanity. The argument justifying 

 this conclusion may be put in another form. Our investigation shows that 

 if the native-born has the same lunacy-rate at each age as the remainder of 

 the population the native-born lunatics should constitute materially less 

 than 0-328 of the whole : according to the numbers of registered insane on 

 the 31st December, 1906, the native-born insane constituted 0-311 of the 

 whole. There is thus absolutely no basis for any argument designed to 

 show that the native-born are less liable to insanity than the immigrant 

 population of the country. 



The Immigrant and his Countrymen. 



But in the report the immigrant is compared to his disadvantage not 

 only with the New-Zealand-born, but also with his countrymen remaining 

 behind in his native country. The deduction is drawn " that he is not an 

 average type of the country of his origin," but, on the contrary, is " below 



