Some Population Figures. 501 



calculate that this Colony benefited by immigration during the 13 

 years mentioned to the extent of about 90,000, or, roughly, 7,000 per 

 annum. As to whether this will be continued is not a matter within 

 the scope of this paper. 



I feel, however, compelled to return to the appalling Coloured 

 Death Rate, which has already been referred to. As pointed out, 

 the Coloured Death Rate in the 34 principal towns of the Colony 

 during 1904 was very nearly 3 times the European Death Rate; and 

 were it not for the still higher Birth Rate every year, our Coloured 

 population would be getting less. I was so much struck with this 

 enormous Death Rate that I thought it would be a matter of interest 

 to find out how it worked out in a place like Cape Town, and I 

 find that during 1904, the year we have been basing most calculations 

 on, the European Death Rate was 14.3, and the Coloured Death 

 Rate 36.2, or, roughly, 2 per cent, less than the average for the 34 

 towns, but for the 4 years ended 30th June, 1905, it was 37.25. This 

 enormous Coloured Death Rate is due largely to the Deaths of 

 children under one year old. I find that in Cape Town 

 the percentage of Deaths of children under one year 

 among Europeans is 22.70 per cent., and of Coloured 

 39.39 per cent. The general Death Rate for the whole 

 Cape Colonv of children under one year old is 34.92 per cent. 

 Ceylon and British Guiana are both supposed to be very bad climates 

 for children, but in British Guiana the Death Rate is 20.58 per 

 cent., and in Ceylon 25.29 per cent., so that the Cape Colony Death 

 Rate of 34.92 per cent, for children under one year old can only be 

 described as appalling. I do not feel called upon to make deductions 

 from the figures I have compiled to any great extent, though I must 

 confess that it is a very interesting subject, but I may be pardoned 

 in again pointing out the main feature that has been forcibly brought 

 home to me in compiling this paper, and that is that owing to the 

 exceedingly high Death Rate among the Coloured people there is no 

 cause for alarm among Europeans as to the Coloured people becom- 

 ing a danger through their largely increasing numbers. As to the 

 moral right of tacitly permitting a state of affairs where the Death 

 Rate is utterly unreasonable, that is another matter altogether. 



