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the latter, it might have been expected that the death rate would have
increased because of the withdrawal from the population of those of
such favourable ages from the mortality view point. What occurred
though was not merely a rise in the death rate, but a sharp increase in
the actual number of deaths. Again this might have been expected to
have been the effect of the harsher living conditions during the war years.
A comparison of the age distribution of the deaths of 1945 with those of
1938 is of interest. The figure for the various groups of younger ages
is small in each of these two years, and does not differ markedly, the 1945
figures in each group for each sex being less than the 1938 figures. It is
in the older groups that the differences are manifest. Of the 666 deaths
amongst males in 1938, 49 occurred in the age group 35.44, 73 in group
45-54, 118 in group 55-64, 143 in group 65-74, and 126 amongst those
over 75; the corresponding 1945 figures were 42, 110, 160, 204 and 224
out of 877 deaths. Amongst females the 1938 figures were 62, 54, 84,
124 and 169 out of 630 deaths; the 1945 figures were 43, 63, 114, 171
and 373 out of 855 deaths. Such an increase in the number of deaths
amongst persons of these ages might have been the result of conditions,
possibly the harsher conditions of war time, operating especially severely
on persons of these age groups or could be the result of a larger population
at risk. While the elderly were not favoured in the way that the growing
members of the population were, it is not felt that conditions of such
harshness as to cause this substantial increase in the number of deaths
of the aged could have produced this effect without exerting an appreciable
influence on the younger element and particularly on the very young.
So far from this being the case though, the position is that for part of
this period the infant mortality rate touched its lowest level. It is felt
then that the increase in the number of deaths must be a reflection of the
increase in the population at risk, an increase presumably brought about
by the influx of the elderly, more particularly elderly females, during
some of the war years.
Fatalities from the infectious diseases expressed as a rate per 1,000
population, again compared favourably with figures for the country as
a whole, those for whooping cough 0.01, measles 0.01, influenza 0.04,
being about half the national rates, that for diphtheria, 0.02, being the
same, and for diarrhoea in those under two years of age at 2.9 per 1,000
live births, being about half the national rate of 5.6.