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Kōrero: Death rates and life expectancy

Early analysis of death from disease

Table V. — showing the Comparative Relative Mortality Annually from Disease among 1000 Infantry Soldiers in the United Kingdom and New Zealand
  Infantry.
U. Kingdom.
Infantry.
New Zealand.
Fevers 2.5 .1
Eruptive fevers .4
Diseases of the lungs 10.2 2.4
Diseases of the liver .4 .2
Diseases of the stomach and bowels .8 .3
Disease of the brain .8 1.2
Dropsies .3
All other diseases 1.4 1.1
Total 16.8 5.3

This table, adapted from Arthur Thomson's book The story of New Zealand: past and present, savage and civilised(1859), compares death from disease for British soldiers stationed in the United Kingdom with those in New Zealand. The total relative mortality for soldiers in the United Kingdom was over three times that of those in New Zealand. Thomson's comparisons were valid because gender, age and occupation were the same for the two groups, and his findings have been confirmed by modern studies.

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Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

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Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Ian Pool, Death rates and life expectancy – Pākehā epidemiological transition, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/table/26575/early-analysis-of-death-from-disease (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Ian Pool, i tāngia i te 19 April 2011.