View report page

18
males numbering 200, and the females 193. The births in
the same period were 707 (males 379, females 328), which is
within 79 of doubling the number of deaths. The number
of deaths during the past year, it will be observed, was 15
less than in the year 1864, and this is most satisfactory,
seeing that this diminution has occurred in a greatly increased
population—increased to an extent which I calculate
brings it now up, in round numbers, to 24,000. To the
natural increase, that is to say the increase as shewn by the
excess of births over deaths (314), must of course be added
a rather large number for increase by immigration, because
the number of newly erected houses, few of which remain
unoccupied, has been, during the past year, unusually
great.
With, then, the population calculated at 24,000, and the
deaths being 393, it follows that the mortuary rate of the
past year could not have greatly exceeded 16 per thousand
(the exact calculation is 16.37), and this, it may be observed,
is based upon an exceedingly low estimate of the increase
which has taken place alone from new residents.
The table which follows will afford the usual detailed
information as to the causes of death during the past year,
as well as the sex, age, and social positions of the deceased.
Though this table is a small one, its compilation each year
proves a work of considerable labour, but it well repays the
care and pains bestowed upon it, affording, as it does, a
ready means of comparing the death rates of the year with
those given in preceding reports.