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year. It was inconvenient for the Health Department that the change should have
taken place when it did. It would have been better if it had come into operation
at the beginning of 1904. Most difficulty was experienced in connection with the
statistics as to the births.
BIRTHS.
It was necessary for a clerk to search the registers at the offices of the Registrars
every fortnight, in order to make the necessary distribution of births amongst the old subdistricts.
He was enabled to do this through the courtesy of the Registrars. For
the year 1905 the Health Committee have entered into an arrangement with the Registrars
to supply the Birth Returns weekly in the same manner as the Death Returns are supplied.
The number of births in 1903 was 3,763 as compared with 3,932 in 1902. The
males born numbered 1,877, and the females 1,886. In the Shoreditch Infirmary
and Workhouse the births numbered 83, of which 41 were of males and 42 females. Of
these 40 were believed to be legitimate and 43 illegitimate. In the Holborn Union
Workhouse there were 91 births, of which 42 were male and 49 female, 33 being legitimate
and 58 illegitimate.

Deducting the births in the Holborn Workhouse, the mothers not being persons
belonging to Shoreditch, the birth-rate was 31.6 per 1,000 inhabitants. The birthrate
in the Registration sub-districts are contained in table VI. (appendix). A marked
decline in the birth-rate is observable this year, the rate being 1.3 per 1,000 lower than
that of last year. There has been a steady decline since 1883. From 1865 to 1883
(inclusive) the Shoreditch birth-rate was every year above 40 per 1,000, and occasionally
it mounted to 42 per 1,000. The rate for 1904 was more than 20 per cent. lower than
that for 1883. The decline in the birth-rate is, however, not a feature confined to Shoreditch.
A similar steady decline is observable in that for the Metropolis. In 1880 the
London birth-rate was 36.2, in 1904 it was 27.9 per 1,000. The births for the whole of
England and Wales during 1904 were at the rate of 27.9 per 1,000; for rural1 England and
Wales, 26.8; for 76 great towns, 29.1; and for 142 smaller towns the rate was 27.5 per
1,000. The Shoreditch birth-rate, therefore, although, markedly less than it used to be,
still remains higher than the average for the Country.