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ON THE VITAL STATISTICS OF TASMANIA, WITH 

 ESPECIAL EEFERENCE TO THE MOETALITY OF 

 CHILDREN. 



By E. C. Nowell, Government Statistician. 



[Eead 12th October, 1875.] 



In most things Tasmania is at a great disadvantage as 

 compared with the neighbour colonies. The larger extent of 

 their territory, the more open nature of the country, their 

 greater, or reputedly greater mineral wealth, the more pro- 

 fitable fields for the employment of capital which they have 

 hitherto offered, have rendered our colony incapable of com- 

 peting on equal terms with them in all matters relating to 

 production, trade, and commerce. The one advantage which 

 Tasmania does enjoy is her climate ; and it seemed to me 

 that in showing in the fullest and most convincing manner 

 her superiority in this respect, especially as regards the health 

 of children, I might be doing some practical service. The 

 mortality in the towns as compared with the country parts, 

 was also one of the questions which I proposed to myself to 

 investigate, and I therefore set about constructing, with the 

 aid of my assistant, Mr. J. J. Barnard, a series of tables, 

 intending to embody the results in my statistical report for 

 last year. But as the subject could be treated only very 

 briefly in such a report, and as the tables, which contained 

 details that seemed to be worth preserving, could not be 

 embodied in it, I resolved to lay them before this Society in 

 the hope that, by drawing public attention to the facts thus 

 brought out, their full significance might be made more 

 widely known. Another inducement to take up the subject 

 was, that my work would fit in with, and supplement, the 

 comparative statistics publishecl last year by the Government 

 of Victoria. Two objects would thus be served — first, atten- 

 tion would be drawn to Tasmania as a desirable place of 

 residence for persons seeking for themselves or their children 

 a healthy climate ; secondly, another contribution, however 

 humble, would have been made to that stock of knowledge of 

 man's physical and moral nature, which we have as yet only 

 begun to acquire from the analysis and comparison of 

 statistical facts. 



The first set of tables (A to D) shows the mortality of 

 children up to the age of 10 years as between Tasmania and 

 the Continental Colonies. The second (E to N) shows not 

 only that of children at this age, but also that of persons at 

 " all other ages " in Tasmania alone, under the following 

 divisions: — 1. The whole Colony. 2. Hobart Registration 

 District. 3. Launceston Registration District. 4. The two 



