usually unhealthy year. Taking the principal causes of death, there were from
| 1869. | 1875. | ||
| Miasmatic diseases … | 73 | 129 | deaths |
| Diseases of Respiratory Organs … | 35 | 56 | do. |
| Do. Nervous System … | 33 | 53 | do. |
| Phthisis … | 8 | 27 | do. |
| Disease of Digestive Organs … | 30 | 24 | do. |
In 1869 no deaths from alcoholism are recorded, hut in 1875 there were three. The deaths from accident average 25. Comparing the death rates of England and the other Australian Colonies with that of West Australia, it appears that:
| In England | the death rate is | 22·40 | in 1000 |
| New Zealand | do. | 11·38 | do. |
| Tasmania | do. | 13·76 | do. |
| West Australia | do. | 13·47 | do. |
Tasmania and New Zealand being relatively the highest and lowest of the other Australian Colonies; hut great allowance must be made for immigration. In New Zealand in 1871 the number of persons born in the Colony were 64·052; and of immigrants, 192·341, those born in the Colony being less than one-fourth of the whole number. The introduction of so large a number of young and healthy persons must necessarily have decreased the death-rate very materially. The same ailment might be applied to the three other Colonies of Australia, and West Australia may therefore be assumed to be more healthful than any other part of Australasia, as immigration can have had no effect on the death-rate of West Australia, for in 1875 only 447 persons arrived in the Colony, and it was in that year emigration to the Colony recommenced. The character and mode of life of the convict population would also tend to increase rather than diminish the death-rate.
