is a fair index--there seems little doubt that
there has been a marked increase.

A reference to the graph already given will indicate this rise.

There is reason to hope that the fall in 1935 means an improvement in
the general situation.

Professor Dawson, giving evidence regarding admissions to the Dunedin
Hospital, showed that in the five-year period 1931-35 there was an
increase of 23.7 per cent. in the cases of abortion as compared with
the previous five-year period.

The evidence of other medical witnesses was practically unanimous on
this point.

HOW DOES NEW ZEALAND COMPARE WITH OTHER COUNTRIES IN THIS MATTER?

According to the report of the British Medical Association Committee on
the Medical Aspects of Abortion (1936), the position in Great Britain
would appear to be very similar to that existing in New Zealand.

In that report it is stated that the incidence of abortion is generally
reckoned at from 16 per cent. to 20 per cent. of all pregnancies.

The spontaneous-abortion rate is suggested as probably about 5 per
cent. of all pregnancies.

The evidence set before that Committee suggested that there has been an
increase in criminal abortion in the last decade.

In England and Wales 13.4 per cent. of the total maternal deaths were
due to abortion.

That Committee concludes that "illegal instrumentation contributes to
an overwhelming degree to the mortality from abortion."

One of the most interesting investigations into this aspect of the
subject is reported by Parish[1] in a study of 1,000 cases of abortion
treated as in-patients in St. Giles's Hospital, Camberwell, during the
years 1930 to 1934.

[1] "The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British
Empire," December, 1935, p, 1107. T. M. Parish.

In 374 of these cases where instrumentation was admitted the febrile
rate was 88.2 per cent., and the death rate 3.7 per cent., while in 246
cases with no history of interference and presumably spontaneous the
febrile rate was 5.7 per cent. and the mortality rate _nil_.

The following table compiled by the Government Statistician shows New
Zealand's position in comparison with eleven other countries:--

_Puerperal Mortality per 1,000 Live Births in Eleven Countries, 1934._

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| | | Total Puerperal
| | | Mortality.