Adams. — On Neiv Zealand Mortality. 659 



Art. LXVI. — A Comparison of Neio Zealand Mortality 

 during the Periods 1874-81 and 1881-91. 



By C. E. Adams, B.Sc, A. I. A., Engineering Scholar and 

 Engineering Exhibitioner, Canterbury College, and Senior 

 Scholar, New Zealand University ; formerly Lecturer on 

 Applied Mathematics, Canterbury Agricultural College. 



[Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 11th October, 1897.] 



Plate LIX. 



The first systematic investigation into New Zealand mor- 

 tality, involving the results of more than one census, was 

 made by F. W. Frankland, P.I.A., in 1883. The results of 

 his investigation, which are deduced from the three censuses 

 of 1874, 1878, and 1881, are given in vol. xv. of the "Trans- 

 actions of the New Zealand Institute," p. 500. The work 

 was undertaken to furnish Alfred K. Newman, M.B., 

 M.E.C.P., with statistics for his inquiry, " Is New Zea- 

 land a Healthy Country ?" 



The next investigation was for the period 1881-91, and 

 was based on the three censuses of 1881, 1886, and 1891. 

 The mortality during this period has been investigated by two 

 independent observers — G. Leslie, Assistant Actuary, New 

 Zealand Government Life Insurance Department, and the 

 present writer. The paper ' of the former was published in 

 the Neiv Zealand Journal of Insurance, Mining, and Finance 

 in September, 1895, while that of the latter appeared in the 

 " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," vol. xxix. It 

 is worthy of note that although widely different methods were 

 adopted the results agree in a remarkable manner. This is 

 the more satisfactory as the results are so favourable to the 

 colony that had they been obtained by one investigator only 

 they might have been open to criticism. 



The comparison submitted herewith is limited to the 

 death-rate per hundred living for each year of age up to five 

 years, then in intervals of five years, as this is the form 

 in which Frankland' s results are given. This comparison 

 brings out many interesting features in colonial mortality. 

 Among them may be mentioned, — 



1. The improvement in infantile mortality : Both in males 

 and females, from ages to 5, the mortality has steadily de- 

 creased, the improvement being most marked in the females. 

 This is shown in Plate LIX., where the dotted line repre- 

 senting the mortality from 1874-81 is higher than the con- 

 tinuous line representing the mortality from 1881-91. 



