APRIL 28.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 711

In the first table are given the deaths and death-rates for each of the four cities, for the suburban boroughs severally, and for each city with its suburban towns. As regards Auckland and Christchurch, the whole of the area usually recognised as suburban has not yet been brought under municipal government, and the vital statistics do not deal with such portions as still remain in road districts. But the omission is not very important, for there are in either case quite enough suburbs included within borough boundaries to give a fair idea of the death-rate of Greater Auckland and Greater Christchurch. As further boroughs are formed the vital statistics will be made to include them.

The inclusion of the suburban boroughs tends to lower the death-rate at each of the four centres. The rates for March are:—

Death-rates per 1,000 of Population.

Auckland City .. .. .. .. .. .. 1·74
" and five suburban boroughs .. .. .. .. 1·53
Wellington City .. .. .. .. .. .. 1·14
" and three suburban boroughs .. .. .. .. 1·07
Christchurch City .. .. .. .. .. .. 0·93
" and four suburban boroughs .. .. .. .. 0·73
Dunedin City .. .. .. .. .. .. 1·37
" and eight suburban boroughs .. .. .. .. 1·21

Including the suburbs, the rate at Auckland is the highest and at Christchurch the lowest.

Compared with March, 1897, the results are,—

March, 1897. March, 1898.
Auckland and suburbs .. .. .. .. 1·10 1·53
Wellington and suburbs .. .. .. .. 1·10 1·07
Christchurch and suburbs .. .. .. .. 0·80 0·73
Dunedin and suburbs .. .. .. .. 0·87 1·21

Specific Febrile or Zymotic Diseases.—There were 43 deaths from this class of disease in March, against 53 in February. Influenza was not so fatal last month, when there were only 8 deaths, as in February, when 22 deaths occurred in the four centres and their suburbs: three of these eight deaths were at Auckland, 1 at Wellington, 1 at Christchurch, and 3 at Dunedin. Diphtheria is found to have been fatal at Christchurch, where there was 1 death in March. Typhoid fever caused 3 deaths at Auckland, 1 at Wellington, and 1 at Christchurch. The total of 5 deaths is a slightly greater mortality than that which obtained in February, when 4 deaths were recorded. Diarrhoeal diseases show 26 deaths—12 at Auckland, 10 at Wellington, and 4 at Dunedin. Two children died of congenital syphilis; and there was 1 death from puerperal septicaemia.

Constitutional Diseases.—The mortality for March was heavy, being 41 deaths at the four towns, against 24 in February. Cancer contributed 18 deaths for March, phthisis 15, and diabetes 2.

Local Diseases.—Deaths under this head increased from 50 in February to 85 in March. Diseases of the nervous system caused 19 deaths; of the circulatory, 24; of the respiratory, 14; of the digestive, 20; of the lymphatic, 2 (1 exophthalmic goitre); of the urinary, 3 (1 Bright’s); and of the reproductive, 3.

Violent Deaths.—There were 10 accidental deaths and 2 suicidal. A sharebroker was killed by fracture of skull, the result of a fall; a child by the fall of a beam; and a labourer from apoplexy, caused by falling on his head—all at Auckland. At Dunedin a master mariner died from fracture, and a woman from the same cause. Two boys were drowned in the harbour, and an adult male was run over by a train. At Wellington, a labourer was scalded to death, and another killed by falling down the hold of a ship.

At Auckland, there was a case of suicide by shooting, and another by taking “Rough on Rats.”

The subjoined table shows the mortality for the last two months at each of the four centres from six principal specific febrile or zymotic diseases, and also the deaths from certain inflammatory diseases of the lungs. These causes of death have been distinguished from the others of the classes to which they belong as being the most important special diseases which give rise to sudden increases in the death-rates of towns, and the prevalence of which is closely connected with sanitary condition and climatic influence of the season on health.