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21
rate does not become marked on account of the migration into the
district of young married couples. When these factors disappear,
and the population of a district becomes as it were stabilized, the
effects of a falling birth-rate are then more apparent. In some of
the Metropolitan boroughs, the number of births has been nearly
halved in the last 10 years; there is a smaller population in these
boroughs because the families are smaller than they were, but
the lower population is not the only cause of the drop in the number
of births.
Whenever the Registrar General's reports are published,
articles appear in the daily press pointing out the dire results
which will follow if the tendency continues. As these articles usually
refer to a general state of things, it is doubtful if we ever take the
trouble of asking the question how the figures may affect our
own district, and what problems do the figures present to us.
Frequently, when figures in the mass do not-appeal, when these
are analysed, their significance becomes clearer.

Although the figures for the Wards are not absolutely correct,
they are approximately and relatively correct.
In the interval between 1906 and 1935 the population of
the North-East and North-West Wards has increased and altered
very considerably, but even in these wards the number of births
in 78 less in 1935 than it was in 1906. But it is in the South-East
and South-West Wards that the numbers are startling. These
two wards have increased very little in population in 30 years;
in 1906 their population was estimated at 28,000 and in 1935 at
The births in these two wards have fallen from 979 in1906
to 373 in 1935. What is the trend of events, and what effect
till this trend have; even if the conditions have become stable
will the South-East and South-West Wards, will the same course