could be reduced to that of October (say 62 deg.) in the four 

 summer months December, January, February, and March, no 

 less than 300 lives might annually be saved. " A shipload of 

 immigrants of the best type and not of the criminal class." 



I have stated that the heat of South Australia is always a dry 

 heat, and that this is the cause of our excessive mortality. 

 This will appear more distinctly by comparing it with that of 

 Queensland. In that colony the deathrate of infants is much 

 lower, than it is in South Australia, although the temperature 

 of Queensland is some five or six degrees higher. But in 

 Queensland there is a great deal more moisture in the 

 atmosphere. Taking for example the year 1875, we find that 

 the average temperature for that year in South Australia was 

 62 '1 — that of Queensland 69"3 ; the infant deathrate of South 

 Australia was 181 per 1,000, that of Queensland only 152. 

 Hence though the temperature was seven degrees more, the 

 deathrate was 29 per 1,000 less. But the amount of humidity 

 in Queensland was 77, while that of South Australia was only 

 60. And this difference in the amount of humidity is more 

 marked in the summer months than in the year's average. In 

 the four summer months January, February, March, and De- 

 cember, in 1875, the degree of humidity in South Australia was 

 43 per cent, less than that of Queensland, whilst its tempera- 

 ture was only 8 per cent. less. This certainly shows that it is 

 not the fact of its being hot alone that destroys children, but 

 that the heat is complicated with dryness. 



III. — Is the Deathrate oe Infants Higher in Adelaide 



THAN IN THE COLONY GENERALLY ? 



The rate in the City of Adelaide is 216 per 1,000 births. 



" " of the District of Adelaide is 1767 " 

 That of the colony, excluding Adelaide, 148 " " 

 In other words, nearly 50 per cent, more deaths occur in 

 Adelaide in proportion to the infant population than in the 

 rest of the colony. The deathrate of infants in the City of 

 Adelaide as in the Province seems very closely to follow the 

 line of temperature and humidity, but the most fatal month is 

 not March but December, which is also the month in which 

 there is the least humidity. The healthiest month is July, but 

 the rate of mortality is higher in August than that of the 

 Province seems to be. There are, however, two districts even 

 more unhealthy for infants than Adelaide, viz., the District of 

 Daly, including Wallaroo and Moonta, and that of Hindmarsh. 

 In these two districts as many as 230 children in every 1,000 

 born die before they reach the age of one year. After these 

 comes Port Adelaide with a deathrate of 180'6 ; then the 

 District of Adelaide, 176'7 ; Mount Barker, 160"7 ; Burra, 



