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11
This death-rate is of considerable importance, as the agegroup
in question represents that portion of the population
exposed to the influence and effects of school life. Since 1891
it has steadily increased in this District. For the country at
large, the rate has continuously fallen from 6.3 in the decade
1861 to 1870, to 5.1 in the decade 1871 to 1880, and to 41 in the
decade 1881 to 1890.
The deaths of persons between 15 and 25 years numbered 13,
representing a death-rate of 3.5 per 1,000 living at those ages.
The corresponding rate in 1893 was 2 per 1,000, and the annual
average rate for the 3 years 1891 to 1893 was 2.2 per 1,000.
The corresponding average annual death-rate for England and
Wales was for the same years 4.7 per 1,000.
In the following table the above rates are fully shown, and
from it, it will be seen that, although the general death-rate was
bo low in 1894, yet the reduction only affected the first and last
groups of the population, and that the death-rate of the
remaining groups was higher than the average. The most
probable explanation of the former fact is, that the coolness of
the summer and the mildness of the winter, which characterised
1894, were the main causes of a reduction in the normal mortality
of infants and old people respectively.