SANITARY STATISTICS
OF
NATIVE COLONIAL SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS.
SANITARY STATISTICS OF NATIVE COLONIALSCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS.
IF it is said on reading this paper, There is nothing in it,I answer, That is why I wrote it, because there is nothingin it, in order that something might come out of nothing.It is to show that statistics, capable of affording completepractical results when wanted, have scarcely made abeginning in the colonies. It is to show that when theColonial Office, with great labour and no little cost, hascollected, and I, with the same, have reduced these materials,they are incapable of giving all the beneficialinformation expected. The material does not exist, or, ifit does, it is in a very undeveloped state. Such as it is, Ihave tried to do the best I could with it. And this is theresult.
Several years ago, before Sir George Grey returned tohis government at the Cape, I had a conversation withhim on a subject which had dwelt very much on his mind,viz., the gradual disappearance of the aboriginal racesfrom the neighbourhood of civilized communities. Oneof the points raised in the discussion was the probableeffect which European school usages and school educationmight exercise on the health of the children of parentsand of races who had never hitherto been brought undereducation.
Colonialschool returns.
It appeared of great importance to ascertain, if possible,the precise influence which school training exercised onthe health of native children. And I applied to theColonial Office for aid in carrying out such an inquiry.The Duke of Newcastle entered warmly into the subject,and offered at once to call for any information whichmight throw light on it. I had a simple school formprepared and printed, copies of which were sent by theColonial Office to the Governors of the various colonies.Returns were made from a large number of schools, butas no information has been received from many more, Ipresume the school statistics did not afford the means ofsupplying the required information. {4}
I have received, through the Colonial Office, filled upreturns from 143 schools, in Ceylon, Australia, Natal, WestCoast of Africa, British North America, the results ofwhich are given in the accompanying series of tables.
Table A. gives the name and date of opening of eachschool, the numbers of years included in the Return, theaverage number of native children, their sexes and agesfor quinquennial periods, together with the mortality forthe period included in the return. The results of thistable for all the colonial schools are given in the reductionTable A. a., which states the total average attendancefor all the schools in each colony, together with the totaldeaths, arranged in quinquennial periods, so far as it couldbe done. This table merely gives the general numericalresults; but as the periods vary considerably it has beennecessary to reduce the data under one common denomination,to obtain the absolute annual rate of mortality.This has been done in the Tables B, C, D, E, F, whichshow the years of life and