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inclusive, added the deaths of persons dying in Institutions, &c.,
outside the Parish boundary to the districts to which the
deceased are reported to have originally belonged, bnt in consequence
of the increasing number of such deaths registered " as
late of St. Luke's Parish " merely, I have abandoned the practice
mentioned for the last five years, and given the number of such
deaths separately, but I have added the percentage of such
mortality and also that of children under five years of age for
each year for the whole ten years.
It has been pointed out that the death.rate of St. Luke last
year was exceedingly high, but it will be seen by the tables
appended that, with the exception of the years 1889 and 1894,
the number of deaths was less and the death rate lower than any
of the ten years under consideration. While the Infant mortality
which, for the year 1881, stcod at 54.2, and 1891 at 51.3 percent.
of the total number respectively, shows the smallest percentage
of either of the ten years, viz., 36.3. On the other hand,
the number of deaths in Institutions outside the Parish registered
as belonging to St. Luke was greater during the last two
years than had ever been the case previously.
That the Infant mortality is the main cause of our heavy death.
rates is proved beyond doubt. Taking my Annual Reports for the
past four years it may be seen that the deaths of children under
5 years of age have exceeded by 50 per cent. the total number
occurring in the Parish.
The figures are for the year
1893 Adults 891 under 5 years 468
189 4 ,,308 „ 320
189 5 453 „ 455
189 6 322 „ 406
The question naturally arises why this should occur, and the
a iswer is found mainly in the recorded causes of death. Taking.
last year as an example (and I again confine my observations to
deaths occurring in the Parish), it will be seen that out of 44
persons certified as dying from Diarrhoea, 40 were infants under
5 years of age ; from Bronchitis, Pneumonia, &c., 81 out of 135
total ; from Suffocation, 24 out of 27 (L need hardly say that the
said suffocations occurred for the most part while the infants were
in bed with their parents, really overlain, an accident (?) almost
unknown among persons of better social position). Measles, a
disease which, with proper care and attention, is rarely fatal, was