154 TEE ECONOMIC RECORD NOV.

number, while between the same dates food prices in New Zealand rose 50.9%, according to the New Zealand index- number, then it might reasonably be assumed that in July, 1925,

New South Wales food-prices mere , or 102.77;

of, that is 2.7% above, Xew Zealand Prices. The use of such a correction factor gives a more accurate

result, the more nearly the official regimens for New Zealand and New South Wales, and the common regimen adopted for the July, 1914, comparison, correspond with one another.

The publication of a series of such correction factors by statistical offices publishing international data as to price in- creases would add a wealth of new meaning to such tables, and would amply justify the comparatively small labour of computa- tion involved. Like the correction factors employed in connection with death rates, such price-level correction factors would, of course, require to be recomputed now and again, as in course of time they are liable to become out of joint with fact.

1560 X 99,200

1509

M. F.

NEW ZEALAND VITAL STATISTICS. The first really adequate active recognition of the import-

ance of protecting infant life was undoubtedly made by the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (The Plunket Society), and by its eminent founder, S i r F. Truby King, now Director of Child Welfare and Chief Inspector of Mental Hospitals, New Zealand. By means of it; policy of supplying, gratuitously, authoritative advice and train- ing in matters of mothercraft, this Society has endeavoured at once “ to help the mothers and to save the babies.’’ A t first a n entirely voluntary body, the Society has, since its formation in Dunedin in 1907, become more and more closely associated with the New Zealand Health Department and with the Govern- ment ; from a n amount of €3,000 in 1914 the annual assistance given to the Society from the Consolidated Fund has now reached an amount very close on €30,000.

During the year 1901, out of every 1,000 children born alive, as many as 41.2 succumbed between the ages.of one and twelve months. By 1907, a Fear of several widespread epidemics among infants, the figure had risen to 58.4. It was then that the Society was founded, and by 1912 the rate had fallen to

1925 NeW =LAND VITAL STATISTICS 155

21.1, by 1919 to 16.9, and by 1922 and 1923 to 14.7. In 1924, during which year there mas a serious outbreak of infantile paralysis, i t was 16.3. Great though this fall was among in- fants who had passed their first month, there was for long no improvement in the mortality amongst infants during their first month of life, the figure having been 29.8 per 1,000 children born alive during 1901 and 29.1 during 1923. Attention then began to be seriously directed to the problem of mortality dur- ing the first month of life, with the result that in 1021 there were but 24.0 deaths of infants in their first month of life per 1,000 children born alive. The efforts of the Society have been aided by a falling birthrate, which has given mothers increased time and funds for the care of their offspring, enabling atten- tion to be centred on quality, not quantity. In the course of fifteen years, deaths in Dunedin from infantile diarrhea have been completely stamped out by educating and training the mothers; and throughout the rest of New Zealand, where edu- cation in mothercraft, though active, has been less intensive than in the southern citx, deaths from this cause have been reduced to about one-fourth of their previous importance. In this campaign i t is possible that the cooler climate of Dunedin has been a potent ally-but nothing more than an ally. The same is true in greater or smaller degree with those other causes of death which are usually associated with the later months of a child’s first year of life. With such causes as are commonly designated “neo-natal, ” however ( e.g., congenital debility, pre- mature birth, etc.), less success can be claimed, though, as already hinted, the improved figure for 1924 must be directly ascribed to increased attention paid to pre-natal influences- partly with a view to reducing this type of infantile mortality, partly with a view to reducing the number of stillbirths (which constitute over 3 per cent. of total births, and are increasing), and partly with a view to diminishing the rate of maternal mortality (which is relatively high in New Zealand, partly-it is true-because New Zealand families arc small; so that first births, with their attendant risks to the primiparae, form an ex- ceptionally high proportion of total births). The Health Depart- ment has, in order to cope with these problems, h a u p r a t e d a system of ante-natal clinics, for the examination and tuition of expectant mothers, while, a t the same time, i t is devoting special attention to the improvement of maternity hospitals, the train- ing of midwives, and the prevention of puerperal infection.

New Zealand’s enviable position ns regards infantile death-

136 TBE ECONOMIC RECORD sov.

AllVe from

Yur.

1906.. 1907.. 1908.. 1909.. 1910.. 1911.. 1912.. 1913.. 1914.. 1915.. 1016.. 1917.. 1918. 1919.. 1920.. 1921.. 1922.. 1923.. 1924..

- Undea

0- montb pr 1.ooo

ebudrer tarn dbe.

29.6 30.4 31.2 29.9 30.2 28.6 30.1 29.7 28.9 29.2 27.0 27.9 26.7 28.4 30.8 30.7 27.2 29.1 24.0

=I- Don d c d e

1.OOo -. blldrcn

32.6 3.0 58.4 12.6 36.7 3.7 31.7 3.7 37.6 6.6 27.8 2.8 21.1 2.1 29.5 4.1 22.6 3.6 20.8 3.7 23.7 4.6 20.3 3.0 21.7 6.0 16.9 1.7

62.1 88.8 67.9 61.6 67.7 56.3 51.2 69.2 51.4 50.0 50.7 48.2 48.4 45.3 60.5 47.8 41.9 43.8 40.2

I

9.31 10.96 9.57 9.22 9.71 9.39 8.87 9.47 9.31 9.08 9.64 9.68 14.84 9.61 10.27 8.73 8.77 9.03 8.29

COn. ml- Ilona.

- 3.7 3.3 2.9 4.0 3.1 3.4 1.9 2.6 1.8 2.0 3.6 2.0 2.0 1.9 1.7 2.1 1.4 1.4 0.9

Barpll

D L cL.cL

- 7.6 11.4 0.0 7.2 6.9 6.6 6.1 6.2 4.4 6.2 4.7 4.1 4.3 4.4 6.2 6.2 3.7 4.0 4.6

r r L r l C ad In dMl D L CYCI.

- 11.6 22.8 17.8 11.3 16.0 10.7 7.9 9.0 7.6 6.4 7.3 6.2 3.2 4.1 4.3 4.7 3.3 2.7 4.0

M4- ‘0- UOM.

-- 1.1 1.3 1.6 2.2 2.2 1.9 4.3 3.2 3.5 4.7 3.8 4.2 3.2 4.6 4.6 6.0 4.7 6.6 4.6

26.8 27.7 27.4 25.2 27.0 25.4 26.8 28.4 26.8 24.9 24.2 24.6 27.2 25.2 27.2 26.2 24.8 24.5 20.6

Indrs Of

Yo?- w1cy.

__ 11.56 13.35 11.67 11.30 12.04 11.83 11.27 11.92 11.85 11.38 11.88 11.66 16.80 1 r75 12.80 10.93 10.70 11.12 10.15 -~

The year of the InEoenrs epldemlc.

THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SINKING FUND.

The Western Australian Sinking Fund was established under “The General Loan and Inscribed Stock Act of 1884,” a t the instance of the Crown Agent, as the Colony’s represen- tative in London was then called, and of the Westminster Bank. Even the form and wording of the Act establishing it were suggested by them. From its inception, therefore, the Fund mas