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8
that this fact need preclude medical officers of health from making
use of their opportunities in this direction.
Difficulties, which will probably prove insoluble, remain as
to estimation of populations in sex and age groups and the standardising
factors dependent upon them. Moreover, the present
method of estimation will obviously not apply to 1916 or subsequent
years, unless the National Register is effectively kept up to
date or further enumeration made. Nothing can at present be
decided as to these matters.
I have based all the rates upon the figure supplied by the
Registrar General. For this reason the birth-rate will appear higher
than it actually is, but if one figure be used to calculate the birthrate
and another figure for other purposes, confusion would arise.
Based upon the lower figure there has been a decrease in the
birth-rate.
1,390 births were registered in the district and 24 birth returns
were received from outside districts. Though the figures for the
whole year do not show a very marked decrease, when they are
analysed it is seen that the result for the second half of the year is
more than disappointing. The births registered in the district
during the four quarters numbered 429, 385, 314 and 263 respectively.
There were 724 male births and 690 female. 83 infants were
registered as having been born out of wedlock.
In the face of a lower birth-rate, a higher infantile mortality
is not only disappointing, but serious. It is the highest infantile
mortality recorded in the district since 1911, and a comparison
with that year would be entirely misleading. In 1911, we experienced
a very hot and dry summer, and naturally, there was a
high mortality from summer diarrhoea. Last year, we experienced
the highest mortality in the first quarter, the figures for the four
quarters being 55, 39, 31, and 21 respectively.