View report page

The figures in the body of the table relate to families. The table should be read
thus: Under the heading "4" as the original number of children, then in 12 families
1 child had died, in 3 families 2 of the 4 had died, and in 2 families 3 children had died.
family of six only two survived, in a family of ten there are only three
survivors. The total figures are too small to enable it to be stated that
infant mortality is confined to a limited number of families, but they
appear to indicate that it is so, after the exclusion of first babies.
The large number of children (50) who are prematurely born, or
who are born in such a weak state (83) that they can only live a short
time, shows that before the child is born the health of the parents is
one requiring serious consideration.
The Royal Commission on Physical Deterioration, in their report,
drew attention to a number of causes which they believed operated
in an injurious manner.
Amongst the first may be placed the gradual withdrawal of the
peasantry from the country and their aggregation in towns, where the
keen struggle to make a livelihood, the difficulty of obtaining proper
accommodation, the want of good air and playgrounds, improper and
unwholesome feeding and overcrowding, late hours, premature smoking
and drinking, and the. strain on the nervous system due to town life,
are likely to render the children of those who have immigrated from
the country more weakly than their parents. These children marry,
often at too early an age, without being able to make proper provision
either for the housing or feeding of their progeny, and these are apt to
fall a stage lower still. Moreover, the difficulty of earning a sufficiency
will often tempt or compel the mothers to supplement their husbands'
scanty earnings by working themselves even during pregnancy or too
soon after confinement.