In New South Wales. 71 



"Wales table diverges considerably from the English in this respect, 

 the mortality amongst females being very sensibly less than that 

 of males from the age of 7 years upwards, the difference increas- 

 ing almost continuously with the increase of age. In England 

 the rates are nearly equal, but slightly in favour of the males 

 during a period of thirty-three years. Here the rates remain 

 nearly equal for a very few years, and then diverge with com- 

 parative rapidity. If there were anything irregular or fluctuating 

 in these results, I might feel inclined to doubt them, and to 

 attribute the marked difference in this respect between the rates 

 here and in England, to some error in the data, or in the methods 

 of estimation adopted ; but the uniformity and certainty of the 

 results precludes such a supposition, and leaves no doubt that 

 there is, from some cause or other, a greater difference here than 

 in England between the rates of mortality of the two sexes. It 

 is to be observed also, that the period of life during which the 

 rates of mortality of males and females are nearly equal in 

 England, is the same as that during which, in this colony, the 

 rates are most nearly equal. This is to some extent a confirm- 

 ation of the truth of my results, and at the same time seems to 

 indicate that the fact observed in England, that the rate of mor- 

 tality of males, as compared with that of females is less between 

 the ages of 7 and 40 than at other ages, results from some 

 general law independently of local circumstances. The law seems 

 to act here, but greatly diminished in its manifestations by some 

 local cause increasing considerably the relative mortality of males 

 between those ages. 



Table B shews how many out of 10,000 persons born, die during 

 each successive period, until they are all extinct, and also the 

 number living at each age, both for New South Wales and for 

 England. The numbers are given for each year up to the age of 

 5 years, and for higher ages at intervals of 5 years only. The 

 earlier part of the table may be considered to apply to native- 

 born children only, for of those living at earlier ages, the num- 

 ber born elsewhere must be too small to affect the results in any 

 sensible degree. Of those living at the more mature ages, how- 

 ever, a large proportion were born out of the colony, and the 

 rates of mortality at those ages apply to the mixed population as 

 it exists. This table must, therefore, be considered to represent 

 the rate according to which 10,000 infants born in the colony will 

 probably die, upon the supposition, that as they advance in years 

 the rates of mortality amongst them will be the same as they now 

 actually are amongst the existing population, which contains a 

 large number of persons of European birth, There are not at 

 present any data available for determining how far, if at all, the 

 rates of mortality of persons resident in New South Wales, but 

 born elsewhere, differ from those of the native born. 



