Sessional_Paper_1895 — Page 390

366

MORTALITY STATISTICS.

The attached tabular statements (B) show:-

(a) The death-rate in 1894 for

1. The British and Foreign community.

2. The Chinese community on land in each registration district. 3. The Chinese community afloat in each registration district.

4. The Chinese community on land in the Colony.

5. The Chinese community afloat in the Colony.

6. The total Chinese community in the Colony.

7. The British, Foreign, and Chinese community combined-army and navy excluded. (b) The number of deaths occurring under each of the seven groups into which it has been deemed expedient (in view of the system of death registration in vogue) to classify in the summary the causes of death.

(c) The total number of deaths occurring among the British and Foreign community in each month of each year, 1889 to 1894, both inclusive, under six disease groups. These groups are the same as in (b) only 6 and 7 groups are amalgamated.

(d) The same as (c) but for the Chinese community.

(e) The total number of deaths occurring in the Colony-those in the army and navy excluded -in each month for the past six years, together with the death-rate for the estimated population.

The attached diagrams show-

(a) The number of deaths which occurred each month under each of the groups referred to

above.

(b) The mean temperature for each month.

(c) The rainfall for each month.

(d) The number of deaths registered during each month of the years 1889 to 1894, as also

the mean temperature and rainfall.

The death-rates recorded are, I feel sure, less reliable than usual, simply on account of the large number of people who left the Colony temporarily during the prevalence of the disease designated Bubonic Plague. However, the figures given are the only ones available for statistical work of this kind, and I am of the opinion that the population of the Colony on the 31st December was pretty much the same as if we had never been afflicted with Bubonic Plague.

It is worth noting that in 1886 the total number of deaths recorded in the Colony was 5,100 amongst an estimated population of 181,700 or, in round figures, the death-rate for that year was 28 per 1,000, while in the exceptional year under review the total number of deaths recorded amount to 7,362 amongst an estimated population of 242,400, or a death-rate of 30.3 per 1,000.

With regard to death registration the remarks I made in my report for the year 1890 are applicable to the present time, for nothing has been done-I refer to appointment of native medical practitioners trained to some extent in Western medicine-beyond a medical inspection of the patients in the Tung Wa Hospital to ensure that the recorded cause of death is the real cause from which death occurred.

The feature of paramount interest in these statistics is the large number of deaths recorded as caused by Bubonic Plague. As I was absent from the Colony during the prevalence of this disease it is not, in my opinion, expedient that I should do more than briefly refer to one or two points that seem to me will be of some value to Members of the Board. The disease appears, in at least one respect, to resemble typhus fever in so much as the great majority of its victims were observed to be amongst a poverty-stricken people who were poorly fed, badly housed, and who lived in overcrowded houses and overcrowded areas. The localities in Victoria where the disease was most prevalent were mainly occupied by people to which the foregoing description is fairly applicable.

These

In 1887 when the Public Health Bill was under the consideration of the Legislature it was my duty to represent the conditions under which the mass of the people in the Colony lived, representations were sharply called in question, and the Officer Administering the Government-Sir WILLIAM GORDON CAMERON-thought it desirable to personally investigate the matter. This he did in a very thorough manner by a careful inspection of the worst dwellings in the Chung Wan, Tai- ping-shan and Sai-ying-poon districts of the city, and his subsequent speeches in Council show very clearly what his opinions were. Had the Public Health Bill of 1887 been passed in the form in which it was transmitted to the Colonial Secretary by the Sanitary Board, and had the sanitary staff received reasonable support in enforcing its provisions. I am satisfied that the heavy mortality from Bubonic Plague in 1894 would not have occurred. The most powerful opponents of the Bill belonged to those classes who have suffered most, financially, from the serious outbreak of Bubonic Plague, and I must confess consider their action in 1887 has met in 1894 with the result it deserved.

I again consider it desirable to repeat the remark that in considering these statistics it is necessary to keep in view the circumstance that our pop ulation is not a normal one, but a population in which the male sex in the prime of life largely predominates.

HEALTH DISTRICTS.

Cemeteries.-The bye-laws which came into force on the 1st January, 1892, have been enforced without any hitch of importance, but inconvenience has been experienced owing to the circumstance that

Page 390Page 391