[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 3rd February,
1883.] That “National health is national wealth,” has become a
firmly fixed article of belief among all modern thinkers. Much
has been written upon the resources of New Zealand: authors have
described in glowing words its boundless mineral wealth, and the
luxuriant fertility of its rich soil. A few have touched upon
the healthiness of the climate, but these latter have made
statements chiefly consisting of vague and shadowy beliefs, and
not the results of patient enquiries. Upwards of forty years
have come and gone since this colony was founded, and since 1874
the censuses have been so many and so accurate, and the
population so large, as to afford us a sufficient supply of
facts whereon to base the statements made by us. In the
childhood of the colony several army surgeons collected
statistics of the healthiness of the troops stationed in it, and
compared these with those of our soldiers quartered in other
parts of the globe. These statistics,