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total mileage to be covered by your Inspectors in launches and on foot
amounts to about 90.13 miles daily, exclusive of the distance from dock to
dock, &c. Notwithstanding the distance to be covered, the annual number
of inspections shows a steady increase, and in 1902 exceeds the number
recorded in any previous year since the Authority was constituted.
POPULATION OF THE PORT.
The Census of 1901 affords an opportunity of placing before your
Worshipful Committee some information on the subject of the probable floating
population of the Port, that is, the resident population as distinct from the
daily working population, which is, of course, much larger. According to
the Census returns, the number of persons enumerated on board seagoing and
coasting vessels, and on inland barges and boats in the Counties of London,
Middlesex, Surrey, Essex and Kent (see Table B) was 12,445 on 1,926
vessels. Of these, 9,166 persons on 1,299 vessels, or 73.65 per cent, of the
total number, were within the jurisdiction of the Port Sanitary Authority.
Of the population of the Port, 5,852 were on board British vessels, 1,633
on Foreign and Colonial vessels, 368 on inland barges and boats, and 1,313
on floating institutions not classified as " vessels."
The total number of females on board vessels in the Counties mentioned was
689, or 5.53 per cent.
The figures for the Port do not include any persons resident in houses
situated in the Docks within the district of the Port Sanitary Authority.
Allowing for these, it may, I think, be taken that there is a nightly population
in round figures of about 10,000 persons within the jurisdiction of the
Authority.
The number will, of course, be governed by the number of vessels in the
Port at any one time. This does not vary greatly on the whole, and, therefore,
the figures would be fairly constant. The fact of this population is of
interest, emphasising as it does the importance of the principal duties of your
Officers in relation to Infectious Disease and the abatement of nuisances.
In 1874, soon after the Authority was first constituted, your then Medical
Officer, Dr. Leach—on an average annual number of 25,000 vessels entered
—estimated the average number of vessels in Port at 1,000, and the
population at 9,000.
The average annual number of entries has now advanced to upwards of
28,000, and the number of vessels in the Port, with the population, approximates
very nearly to the estimate of thirty years ago.
A great change has come over the nature of the shipping since then.
Sailing vessels have given place to steamers. These latter, although not
employing more hands, i.e., in the ordinary cargo steamer, have much increased
in carrying capacity and speed, consequently countries where infectious diseases
are prevalent have been brought much nearer in point of time to this country,
so increasing the danger from imported infectious disease.