Abstract
ACCORDING to Dr. M. H. Watt, director–general of health for New Zealand, the year 1940—41 was on the whole the most favourable for health that the Dominion has had. Infantile mortality of the European population fell to 30.21, of which 22.03 is accounted for by 722 deaths in the first month of life. Of these, 606 occurred in the first week and another 72 in the second week. In 330 deaths among the new–borns prematurity was the only cause of fatality. The death–rate from tuberculosis among the Europeans was only 0.388, which is a low record for New Zealand and probably for any country, but this disease came next to cardio–vascular disorders, cancer and violence among the causes of European mortality. Among the Maoris the mortality from tuberculosis was 4.132outofatotal mortality of 17.51. Although syphilis has always shown a low incidence among both Europeans and Maoris, it is increasing in both, especially among the latter. Hydatid disease is more prevalent in New Zealand than in any other country, 120 new cases with 16 deaths being expected every year. The low incidence of endemic disease during 1940 was shown by the fact that there was only one death from measles, and 11 deaths from Flexner dysentery among 161 cases. There was a fall in maternal mortality from 3.64 in 1939 to 2.93 in 1940 due mainly to decline in fatality of puerperal sepsis and septic abortion. The total European births shrank from 27,881 in 1927 to 23,935 in: 1935, when the birth–rate reached thelow level of 16.17. Among the Maoris, on the other hand, the num er of births increased from 1,495 in 1927 to 4,265 in 1940, and the rate from 23.22 to 46.87, while the infantile mortality in 1940 was 87.22 and the general death–rate 17.51.
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Health of New Zealand. Nature 148, 778 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148778b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148778b0