According to the Provincial Board of Health, Ontario has the smallest death-rate of any part of the world, the total deaths as reported being only 27,633 to an estimated population of 2,283.182, Dec. 31, 1897, or about twelve per thousand. This, however, could probably be matched by some of the States of our Union with equal proportions of urban and rural population. The birth-rate of the province is also low, as is usual with a low death-rate, it being only about twenty-one per thousand, or a total of 47,323. The registrar estimates, however, that in the cities not nearly all the births have been reported and, this being so, the ratio may really be somewhat higher. It is easy to see by these figures why Canada does not increase more rapidly in population; out of 27,209 immigrants only a little over 19,000 came with the intention of settling, and how