53

the care bestowed on their cultivation by the
New Zealanders.
Since the introduction of potatoes, maize,
and other plants, the culture of the Taro and
Maori Kumera are much neglected.

10. — ON THE HEALTH OF THE NEW
    ZEALAND RACE.

It may seem strange that, in a country where
the Anglo-Saxon race is remarkable for health,
the New Zealanders should be distinguished for
sickness, and that diseases of the lungs—the
very class of maladies I have been endeavouring
to show are not very frequent among the Eng-
lish here—are the maladies which prove fatal to
a large portion of the whole New Zealand race.

This circumstance, I wish it to be clearly
understood, is no argument against the climate
of this country, for the condition of the New
Zealanders is highly unfavourable for health.
Three hundred days out of the year their food
contains little good nourishment; they are badly
clad and worse housed; their habitations are in-
deed miserable, ill-ventilated huts, their beds are
on the ground; the secretion from their skins
is checked by filth; and they often sleep in
crowded huts in winter to keep each other
warm, during which time the air they respire is
most unwholesome. That consumption and
scrofula under such circumstances should be
frequent is not to be wondered at. The same
mode of life would soon produce the same dis-
eases among the Anglo-Saxon race; and there
is one point in the history of the New Zea-
landers which is often overlooked—they origi-
nally migrated from a tropical country, and are
therefore children of the tropics.

It is difficult to suggest how this unhealthy
condition of the New Zealanders might be re-
moved. My own opinion is, that an abundance
of good food is the first and most important
point to be looked into; and that man will be
their greatest benefactor, in a worldly sense,
who can devise some plan by which every New
Zealander can get a pound of alean food, and
a pound of wheaten flour, every day in the year
—a result which peace, trade, and civilization
are, however, slowly bringing about.

I have the honour to be, sir,
Your obedient servant,
A. S. THOMSON,
Surgeon, 58th Regiment,
Auckland, New Zealand, Dec. 10, 1853.

Wellington, New Zealand,
May 14, 1854.

Sir—The accompanying Statistical Table,
with a few explanatory remarks, I consider
interesting, as showing the great salubrity of
this portion of New Zealand, and I beg to en-
close it for your information.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
Yours respectfully,
R. K. PRENDERGAST,
Surgeon 65th Regt.
To his Honor the Superintendent.

TABLE, showing the Total Admissions into the
65th Regimental Hospital, at Wellington, New
Zealand, and the Total Number of Deaths
from the undermentioned Classes of Diseases,
during the Three years ending 31st of
March, 1854.

During the years ending the 31st March, 1852,
1853, and 1854, the Mean Annual Strength of
the Troops stationed at Wellington has been
about 360, and the aggregate strength about
1,079.

Near seven years\' residence here has afforded
me ample opportunity of judging of the climate,
and each year\'s observation tends to prove more
and more the great salubrity of the southern
portion of the North Island of New Zealand.

The accompanying table shows in one view
the little disease the troops stationed here have
suffered from during the last three years, ending
31st March, 1854.

From the above table, the admissions into
the 65th Regimental Hospital, and deaths, have
been about a third less than in the United
Kingdom.

Of the three deaths recorded, two were
sudden; one from apoplexy, in a non-com-
missioned officer of a full habit of body; the
second from the rupture of an aneurismal
tumour.

The total exemption from all classes of fever
here is a striking fact, as during the last three
years, I have not had a single case of fever
amongst the men, women, or children, of the
regiment.

Diseases of the lungs are comparatively few,
and the cases treated were generally of a mild
form.