Superintendent’s Office, Auckland,

29th December, 1853.

THE following valuable Report, by Dr. THOMSON, H. M. 58th Regiment, is republished for general information.

R. H. WYNYARD,
Superintendent.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CLIMATE OF THE NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND.

Sir,—In 1850 I made, at the request of your Excellency, some remarks on the climate of New Zealand, (vide New Zealand Blue Book, 1851). Since then, I have had three years additional experience of the country, and have had an opportunity of perusing and comparing the reports of the different Military Medical Officers in New Zealand, and as my more extended knowledge tends to confirm the accuracy of my former conclusions, I have thought the following statistical data and remarks might render my previous memoir more satisfactory.

I.—On the best Test of the Climate of a Country.

The climate of a country can be tested in various ways, but the amount of sickness and death which occurs among the human race living in it, is now looked on as the most valuable of all tests, for a country is of little importance for colonization, even if food grows fast, so long as the climate causes those who cultivate it to decay. The comparison I have made in this, and more particularly in my first paper, between the health of troops in different countries, is the nearest approach we can have to a correct standard of measure, because British troops in all colonies are about the same age, have the same quantity of food served out to them, have the same medical attendance, and are called upon to perform nearly the same amount of labour. If any happen that some local circumstance may injure the fitness of the comparison; but this test is more free from error than any other. There is one important point to bear in mind, it is that a civil population in the prime of life will suffer less sickness and death than a military—the reason is obvious. The life of a soldier is an unnatural state of existence, he is deprived of much of his natural sleep when on duty, and the want of occupation interesting to the mind makes him more intemperate than civilians, and from sleeping in apartments crowded with human beings, he respires, for at least, during eight hours out of the twenty-four, an atmosphere loaded with the most unwholesome of all poisons to the human frame, namely human effluvia. With these preliminary remarks, I shall now proceed to the more immediate object of this paper.

2.—Evidence of the Climate drawn from the Health of the Troops.

During the years ending March 1851, 1852, and 1853, the mean annual strength of the troops stationed in New Zealand was 1840 men, and the aggregate strength 4020. The conclusions drawn from them are applicable to the whole North Island, because during the above three years

510 men were stationed at Auckland,
751 " " " Wellington,
323 " " " Wanganui,
149 " " " the Bay of Islands.

The average age of the troops was twenty-six years, and the men had been on an average, upwards of four years in New Zealand. As peace reigned between the European and Native population, none of the troops were harassed by active service; their employment was simply what is called Garrison Duty.

Rate of Mortality among the Troops

During the three years ending March, 1853, thirty-two men died from disease. This gives an annual mortality of eight men per thousand: and as in the United Kingdom sixteen men died annually from disease out of a thousand infantry soldiers, it results, that residence in New Zealand saved the lives of eight men annually out of every thousand.

Let us now see in what class of disease this saving of life occurred, a point which will be clearly ascertained by an examination of the following table:

Table number 1 showing the total admissions into Hospital among the troops in New Zealand, and the total number of deaths from the undermentioned classes of diseases, † during the three years ending March, 1853, together with the proportion which these admissions and deaths, bear to what occurred among infantry soldiers in the United Kingdom during the ten years subsequent to 1837.

• Report on the health of the troops in the United Kingdom for 1847, presented to Parliament by Her Majesty’s command, 1848.

† In every regiment, there are a few deaths which occur out of Hospital, these are often not included in the Medical Returns, but in this table I have included all deaths from disease whether the event occurred in or out of Hospital. The actual cause of death was recorded after a post mortem examination, one case only required to be altered. It was entered consumption right pneumonia. The immediate cause of death was the rupture of this aneurism, and the lungs were sound, consequently this case was extracted out of the last of total cases from diseases of the lungs.