In JVeio South Wales. 67 



The death rate in England, determined from an average of seven- 

 teen years, is2231 per thousand of the population : and that in 

 New South Wales, from an average of ten years, is 17'41 per 

 thousand. A comparison of these rates would seem to lead to 

 the conclusion that the climate of this colony is more favourable 

 to life than that of England ; or at all events, that the conditions 

 on the whole are more favourable here than in the mother country. 

 But, in reality, as will appear, the percentage of deaths is small, 

 because of the comparatively small proportion of persons of 

 advanced age living in the colony. The death rate is small, 

 not altogether because the climate is healthy, but because the 

 average age of the people is less than in England. Without 

 taking into consideration the ages of the people living, and the 

 ages at which they die, it is scarcely possible to draw any con- 

 clusions from the comparisons of the mere gross per-centages of 

 deaths in different countries. 



A very elaborate set of mortality tables, prepared at the 

 Registrar- General's office, from the records of births and deaths 

 during seventeen years, and from the results of two censuses, was 

 published in England in the year 1864. In a country such as 

 England, where the existing population is the result chiefly of 

 natural increase, not much affected by emigration or immigration, 

 the increase from year to year proceeds according to laws which 

 remain almost constant during a considerable period ; and of the 

 population living at any particular time, the numbers at the 

 several ages are connected by relations which may be considered 

 almost invariable. It was possible therefore in England, from the 

 results of two censuses taken at an interval of ten years, together 

 with the records of deaths during the intervening years, to 

 estimate with considerable accuracy, by the method of Finite 

 Differences, the numbers of the population and their ages, at 

 intermediate and subsequent years. In this colony, however, 

 where so large a proportion of the increase of the population is 

 due to immigration, which is variable and uncertain, the methods 

 alluded to can scarcely be applied. The natural proportion also 

 amongst the numbers living at different ages is entirely destroyed 

 here by the large influx of persons of mature age. These causes, 

 as well as the comparatively small total numbers, have rendered 

 the subject more than usually difficult to deal with, and at the 

 same time the results more uncertain than those obtained from 

 a larger experience in more populous and more settled countries. 

 The results, however, set forth in the tables appended to this 

 paper are, I believe, as accurate a representation of the effects 

 of the climate and circumstances of this colony upon the dura- 

 tion of life as the data at our disposal will afford. 



My calculations are founded upon the returns of the Registrar- 

 G-eneral from the year 1856 to the present time, and upon the 



