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33
In the absence of any complete and universal record of sickness, privately
as well as publicly attended, but which it is impossible to obtain,
it is hoped that this table, viewed in connexion with the one in the Appendix
relating to pauper sickness and its results, will not be without its
value as a measure of the progress we are making in sanitation.
The total number of deaths registered in this parish during the year
1860, appears by this table to have been 86 only (37 males and 49
females), which is 33 less than the mortality from all causes in 1859.
This fact to begin with is most satisfactory; supported as it will be by
others equally reliable and equally indicative of sanitary progress, I
may safely state I have not yet issued a report calculated to inspire more
gratification for the present, or more hope for the future than the one I
have now the pleasure of submitting.
Calculating the ratio of deaths to population, even upon the census of
1851, it was found that the death-rate of the past year was but 1.7 per
cent, or a fraction over 17 in 1000. The zero of the death-rate of that able
statist, Dr. Farr, is just 17 in 1000 ; so that this enviable position may
be said to have been nearly reached by this sub district in a population
calculated at 1200 less than the ascertained number on the 8th April,
1861. The population according to the census just taken being 6,481, it
is estimated that for the year 1860 it was 6,361, consequently, the deaths
being 86, it gives 13.51 in 1000 only, which is nearly 4 in a 1000 less
than the zero of Dr. Farr, and 5 and a fraction less in 1000 than the
estimate made of a ten years' average mortality previous to the Metropolis
Local Management Act coming into operation. So far it must be
admitted that an advance, and by no means an inconsiderable one, has
been made in the march of sanitation in this parish to have produced
results such as I have here the gratification of recording.
The last census also affords another interesting piece of information.
The population of 1841 was 4,684 ; in 1851 it was 5,280. There was
therefore an increase of 1.122 per cent, yearly, between the two periods.
But the population in 1861 being 6,481, the increase in the last decennial
interval is shown to have been rather over 2 per cent, yearly. The
actual ten years' increase is 1,201.
With the increase of population there has been a corresponding increase
of houses. In 1851 the number of dwellings was estimated at
918. By the last census the number was ascertained to have reached
1,211, viz., 1,133 inhabited, 68 uninhabited, and 10 in progress of building.
With the present population this gives, within a small fraction, 5f
persons to each inhabited house, or something less than 5½ to the total
number ; so that it finds the parish in a somewhat improved position in
this respect to what it was in the first year of the operation of the Metropolis
Local Management Act, when the ratio of population to houses
was 5.75, or 5¾ to each available dwelling. The average annual value of
houses in this sub-district continues high, being estimated at about £36.
This last fact points to one rather important question,—Has the number of
houses fitted to become the dwelling places of the poor, kept pace with the
yearly increase of that class of tho population since the census of 1851?
Until the Registrar General publishes his abstract of tho last census, it would