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22
deaths—260 males, and 248 females. In the same period
there were also registered 839 births, equally divided as to
sex, namely 419 of each. The enlargement of the population
by natural increase in the interval of this and the report
of last year, is therefore 330, as shown by the excess of
births over deaths. This excess is less by 21 than it was
in 1868; but there are good grounds for believing the
increase of the population by immigration was in 1869 very
much larger than in the previous year.
The Census, which will doubtless be taken in less than a
year from this time, can alone determine the number of
inhabitants from which the death-rate can be correctly
estimated, and until then, it will be useless to speculate
upon what such estimate is likely to be. The past year,
it must be acknowledged, has been quite an exceptional
one as regards the mortality from Zymotic diseases ; but if
we take into consideration the constantly increasing population
of this Sub-district, it is not thought that it can
have fared, during the past year, worse than other localities
within the Metropolitan area, the Health Officers of
almost every one of which express their regret at being
unable to furnish such favourable reports as they could
have desired.
The table which follows shows in the clearest manner
the mortality of the past year, and, in addition to this,
gives the ages at death at eight periods, as well as the sex
and social positions of the deceased persons ; all this having
been gleaned with very considerable labour from the
elaborate manuscript returns kindly furnished to the
Metropolitan Officers of Health by the Registrar-General.