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8
factors. There has been, in the first place, much going from
and coming to the district. It may be roughly estimated
that about 350 Belgian refugees were temporarily domiciled
in Ilford in the middle of the year. An appreciable number
of aliens left the district during the year either voluntarily
or otherwise. An increasing number of men were away on
military service, and against this must be placed the
presence of troops stationed in the district. A certain
number of our inhabitants have left the district to take up
munition work elsewhere. The absence of relatives on
military service has caused disorganisation of family life, the
family perhaps moving to lodgings or taking in lodgers or
changing their places of residence. The population returns
of Claybury and West Ham Asylums show that these institutions
were used to their full capacity.
For the purpose of estimating the death, marriage and
birth-rates the Registrar-General proposes to use the civil
population (apart from soldiers) as a basis. His estimate for
the civil population in the year 1915 is 80,832. This estimate
is, I presume, calculated on the assumption that Ilford has
furnished as large a proportion of soldiers as has the
country as a whole. At the time of issue of this report this
will no doubt be a fact. But in the middle of the year 1915
the assumption was not, I believe, a correct one. This is no
reflection on the patriotism of the town, but simply means
that in times of peace Ilford is not a recruiting town. Hence
the drain on the civil population due to enlistment was late
in making evident its effect.
For the purpose of calculating the birth-rate and deathrate
for the year I propose to use the mean between the
figure 88,331, calculated on the basis of house population,
and the Registrar-General's estimate of 80,832. This gives
a figure 84,581 for the estimated gross civil population.
Deducting institutions, there is left a nett estimated civil
population of 80,350.