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24
BATTERSEA.
So far as the natural increase of the population is concerned,
as indicated by the excess of births over deaths, there is,
of course, no difficulty in giving in any year the exact
numbers. Not so, however, as to the increase by immigration,
since that is governed by so many contingencies
as to render it all but impossible, in a locality like Battersea,
to form even an approximate estimate without almost
an annual census. The difficulty experienced in this
respect for some years past have been, for the present,
removed. The Census returns of 1871, so far as they have
been made known, shows that this Sub-district has increased
its inhabitants, since the former Census in 1861,
by the very large number of 34,146; and that the population
has now (within eleven) reached the very high point
of 54,000.
The number of deaths during 1870 appears excessive,
being 1,371, against 1,121 in the previous year. According
to the method of calculation adopted by the RegistrarGeneral,
the rate of mortality in the Sub-district, for the
past year, is found to be, in round numbers, 27 per 1,000
persons living. This is a very high death-rate, but it is
unquestionably an exceptional one. Some correction has
also to be made for the number of poor parishioners who
died in the Workhouse situated in this parish. Of the
162 deaths registered as having taken place in this institution,
64 only had acquired a settlement in Battersea.
The deduction then of nearly 100 deaths from the total
number registered will very materially lessen the deathrate
proper to the parish, and will reduce the same to
about 23 per 1,000.
The following Table exhibits the causes of death, and
many other particulars necessary to be known by those
desirous of estimating for themselves, from time to time,
the health and sanitary condition of this densely populated
and still increasing Sub-district:—