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To the Vestry of the Parish of St. Mary,
Battersea.
Gentlemen,
I have the honor to present my Twenty-Ninth Annual
Report.
POPULATION.
The population of the Parish, being the most important basis
of statistics, is the first matter for consideration, and is necessarily
arrived at by a process of estimation. The official figures are
based upon the assumption that the average annual increase in
the population during the most recent intercensal period, is maintained
during the succeeding years. This process, however, in
view of the amount of building operations being continuously
carried out, and the changes which are ever taking place in a
district, cannot be regarded as in anywise reliable, being a
difficulty remediable only by more frequent census enumerations.
These have been generally carried out at decennial periods with
the exception of that of the year 1896, which took place for the
purposes of the Equalization of Rates Act. The next census
will be taken in April, 1901, and there is every possibility that
thereafter it will be at quinquennial intervals. In view of these
circumstances, whereby any correction if necessary may be made in
the Report for the year 1900,1 propose to continue for the purposes
of this Report to allow the figures indicating the average annual
increase from the years 1891 to 1896, to represent the estimated
annual increase in the population of the Parish of Battersea
during 1899. The census of 1891 showed the population then to
be 150,458 and that of 1896 to be 165,115, representing an
increase during the five years of 14,657, or an average annual
increase of 2,931 per annum. The estimated population for 1898
was 171,709, it therefore follows, that if to this be added the
estimated annual increase of 2,931, the estimated mean population
of the Parish for the year 1899 is 174,640.