pp. [20] to 26.
Table A. gives the name and date of opening of each school, the numbers of years included in the Return, the average number of native children, their sexes and ages for quinquennial periods, together with the mortality for the period included in the return. The results of this table for all the colonial schools are given in the reduction Table A. a., which states the total average attendance for all the schools in each colony, together with the total deaths, arranged in quinquennial periods, so far as it could be done. This table merely gives the general numerical results; but as the periods vary considerably it has been necessary 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, which show the years of life and the mortality for each sex and age.
p. [26 ].
Table A. a. shows that the average attendance of all ages at these schools has been 7,485 boys, and 2,453 girls, making a total of 9,938 as the number of children on whom the rate of mortality has been obtained. A small proportion of these children, only 672 boys and 422 girls, were under 5 years of age. There were 3,546 (2,651 boys and 895 girls) between the ages of 5 and 10. Between the ages of 10 and 15 there were 3,268 children, viz., 2,288 boys, and 980 girls. At the age of 15 and upwards there were 1,391 boys, and only 156 girls, attending school.
The total deaths, for the various periods, on this school attendance were 451 boys and 132 girls, of all ages, besides 79 boys and 39 girls who are returned as leaving school annually to die at home. It is important to remark that, out of a total average school attendance of 9,938, only 235 boys and 82 girls are stated to leave school annually from ill-health.
pp. [27], 28.
The relative mortality of boys and girls attending these schools is shown by Tables B. to F.
The death rate, it will be observed, varies considerably in different colonies. It is least among the native children at Natal, where a little more than five males per 1,000 and three females per 1,000 die annually. The Ceylon schools give a death rate of 14 1⁄2 per 1,000 per {5} annum for boys and about 3 per 1,000 per annum for girls. But, including deaths among children who leave school to die at home, this rate would be nearly doubled.
The Indian schools in Canada afford a total annual death rate of 12 1⁄2 per 1,000 for both sexes; but the mortality of girls is nearly double that of boys.
The Sierra Leone schools afford a very high rate of mortality, viz., 20 per 1,000 for males, and 35 per 1,000 for females.