Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope.

  • Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Department of Public Health.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Table 1.-—Showing the number of Births recorded during the years 1895-1908. 1895. 1896. 1897. 1898. 1899. 1900. 1901. 1902. 1903. 1904. § 1905. 1906. 1907. 1908. Colony Proper. . 37907 38689 40412 41523 41083 40870 41205 42213 44462 46419 44130 48367 50857 50981 ' Bechuanaland* J75 915 660 708 998 1125 1452 1313 1433 1609 1656 1724 1749 1769 Transkeian Territories* 8235 10908 10234 11344 12446 11085 9691 9259 9369 7958 6387 6590 6749-) Pondoland*(new, >7745 Dec. 1. 1900) — fl 1-2 — •1-2 17 1089 1090 993 799 824 1166 1027 J Walfish Bay 20 20 16 13 15 13 27 20 18 16 29 17 32 25 Total for Colonv 46237 50533 51324 53588 54544 53110 53464 53895 56275 56801 53026 57864 60414 60520 “ At Sea ” — 2 3 1 4 7 4 5 3 1 2 6 1 4 Grand Total 46237 50535 51327 53589 54548 53117 53468 53900 56278 56802 5302857870 60415 60524 * The Registration of Births amongst the Natives in these Territories is imperfect, t Township of Port St. John’s only. J For six weeks only. § 111 anfi after the year 1905 the system of tabulating results was altered, and only events actually registered during the year are recorded in the year. In the following Table 2 are shown for the years 1906, 1907 and 1908 the numbers registered of European and Coloured Births in the urban and rural areas, respectively, for the Colony Proper. These demonstrate the fact that, although the total number of Births registered in these years has been increasing, there has been actually a decrease among the European population and only a slight increase among the Coloured population of the towns. This is no doubt mainly due to the population, especially the European, of many of the larger towns having been reduced by migration as a result of the prevailing depression. But even in the rural areas the number of European Births has but slightly increased ; the greater part of the total increase during these years has been due to the Coloured in the rural areas, and of these more especially the Bantu races, as is shown by the succeeding Table No. 3. it is, however, impossible, owing to the absence of an estimate of population and, as far as Natives are concerned, owing to the many omissions to register Births, to ascertain the relative fecundity of the races. But it may be noted for what it is worth that in the Colony Proper the Births of Europeans only constitute a proportion of a little over one-third of the total Births, a proportion, moreover, that has been steadily decreasing during the last few years ; thus, 1906. 1907. 1908. 3743 36-31 34 93 Of course outside the Colony Proper, in Bechuanaland and the Native Territories, Births are nearly all of Natives. 1 his natural increase ” of Native and Coloured, as compared with Europeans, will become as time goes on progressively overwhelming, although it is, at present, partially counterbalanced by the excessive mortality taking place—especially of children among the Native and Coloured races, and, but to a very much less extent, by European immigration. I able 2. Showing the number of Births registered during each of the years 1906, 1907 and 1908 among the European and Coloured populations in the Urban and Rural areas of the Colony Proper, and distinguishing between Males and Females. European. Coloured. Total. Year. Urban. Rural. Urban. Rural. Urban. Rural. M. F. P. M. F. P. M. F. P. M. 1 F. P. 1 I M. F. P. M. F. P. 1906 1907 1908 5,390 1,984 10,374 3,894 3,837 5,320 5,023 10,343 4,187 3,935 4,999 4,716 9,715 4,207 3,888 7,731 8,122, 8,095! 6.960 6,751 13,711 7,013 6,976 13,989 7,143 6,913 14,056 8,394 8,157 16,551 9,387 9,016 18,403’ 9,694 9,421 19,115 12,350 11,735 24,085 12,288 11,994 24,282 12,333 11,999 24,332 13,574 12,951 26,525 12,142 11,629,23,771 13,901 13,309 27,210