X1000307-1954-55_Part01 — Page 9

Registered Medical and Dental Practitioners, etc.

18. Medical and dental practitioners together with pharmacists, nurses and midwives are required by Ordinance to be registered before practising their professions in the Colony. The Director of Medical and Health Services is the ex-officio chairman of the Boards constituted under the respective Ordinances,

14. The numbers of persona registered under these Ordinances are as follows:

Registered Medical Practitioners

Registered Dentists

Registered Pharmacists

Registered Nursea

Registered Midwives

460

341

56

305

KOT

The above figures do not include Service or Government personnel.

JUL. VITAL STATISTICS

15. The registration of births and deaths is compulsory under the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance, the Director of Medical and Health Services being the Registrar of Births and Deaths. A central General Registry is situated in the centre of Victoria and several branch offices are dispersed throughout the Colony for the convenience of the public. In out- lying rural and island areas, the local Police Stations act as local Registries transmitting reports regularly to the Central Registry.

16. During the year 83,817 births were registered, the highest number on record. Deaths registered numbered 19,283. Deaths under 1 year of age recorded numbered 6,028 and the number of women who died as a direct result of complications of pregnancy or delivery was 105. The number of birth certificates issued was 82,490 as compared with 78,406 in 1953.

17. Provision is made in the Ordinance for the post re- gistration of births. An investigation made by the Supervisor of Midwives has indicated that some 3% of births are not registered within the first year of life. The majority of these are probably registered later under the provision mentioned above, but the statistical implication of this is that the number of births registered is not an accurate index of the actual number of children born during the year. A study of the sex ratio at birth as registered supports this, there being a marked dis- crepancy between the ratio of males to females born in the urban areas as compared with the number of males to females born in the rural areas where it would appear that an astonishingly high percentage of male children are born. The ratio in the urban areas bears a somewhat closer relationship to the male to female ratios at birth found elsewhere in the world, but it would still seem to indicate that Chinese mothers tend to give birth to male children rather more frequently than do mothers of other races, an observation subject to considerable doubt and more liable to some other explanation.

18. Another problem making it virtually impossible to produce reliable statistics for the Colony, is the fact that it has not been found possible to make a census of the population, Only a rough estimation of the total number is possible and this is accepted as 2,277,000. This figure probably errs heavily on the conservative side. Nothing is accurately known as regards the age, sex, or racial distribution of the population but the population is predominantly Chinese, and there would appear to be an unusual excess of young male adults judging by an analysis of the morbidity and mortality figures.

19. Accepting the figures reported at birth, a crude birth rate of 36.6 per thousand of population and a crude death rate of 8.5 per thousand of population is given; both somewhat higher than in 1953.

20. The infant mortality rate can be calculated with some- what greater accuracy. In spite of the greater number of deaths registered during the year of children under 1 year of age, which

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