Vital staistics for 1923
The vital statistics for 1923, as recorded by Mr A. R. Kennedy (Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages) show that the number of deaths exceeded by 76 those during 1922. This increase was caused by the high rate of mortality among old people during the influenza epidemic about the middle of the year; for instance, the deaths in July of last year totalled 171, compared with 99 in the same month of 1922, and the deaths in August were 138 compared with 99 in August of the previous year. The deaths for the past year, for the last quarter, and for the month of December, were as follows, compared with the deaths during the same periods in 1922. The number of births in 1923 falls 46 short of the total in 1922. Marriages recorded in 1923 exceed by 46 the number recorded during the previous year. The number of marriages in the registrar’s office last year totalled 118, compared with 101 in 1922.
New Year honours
An apportionment of two knighthoods to New Zealand seems to have become an accepted feature in the bestowal of New Year Honours. On the present occasion the North Island and the South Island participate equally in the distribution. The knighthood which has been bestowed on Dr Ferguson, of this city, will, we think, be generally regarded as an honour, that is entirely merited and indeed somewhat belated. It is a compliment to an honourable profession of which Sir Henry Lindo Ferguson is a distinguished ornament; it is a recognition of the value of the Otago Medical School in the interest of which Sir Henry has performed services of inestimable importance; and it is an acknowledgment also of an enormous amount of highly useful work in connection with medical science and medical education. The calling of the medical practitioner is one that is of such special benefit to the community that it deserves, and should receive, in New Zealand, as it receives elsewhere, the recognition which is marked by the bestowal of titular rank.
Seeing in the New Year
The passing of the old year was marked on Monday night by the usual revelry. The streets were crowded until a late hour, and explosions of fireworks were to be heard throughout the night. As a whole the behaviour of the public was good, and instances of somewhat disorderly conduct were few. The holiday-makers and crib owners of Purakanui celebrated the close of 1923 in a somewhat novel manner by holding a boat parade in the evening, when quite a large fleet of boats, dinghies, punts, and canoes appeared decorated with greenery, flags, etc. At the stroke of midnight the hills were still a blaze of light, and a fine display of fireworks saw the old year pass away.
— ODT, 2.1.1924
