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6
POPULATION.
The Registrar-General many years ago remarked that "The
growth of a population is determined by two factors, firstly by the
balance between the births and the deaths, and secondly by the
balance between emigration and immigration." Now it is sufficiently
easy to determine the first of these factors from the returns of the
local registrars, but to ascertain the value of the second is impossible
as no records are available, and we are reduced to mere guess work.
The London Census, which is now taken once in five years,
ascertains actual numbers of population, but any estimate formed as
to the increase or decrease of these numbers in the last year of the five
which have elapsed since 1896 cannot be accepted as more than a
mere approximation.
The Registrar-General bases his published estimates of population
in each instance on the ascertained rate of increase or decrease which
took place between the two previous census enumerations in the
years 1891 and 1896. On referring to the reports for those two
years it will be observed that the population of North Bethnal Green
was actually decreasing in 1896, whilst the other two registration
sub-districts shewed an increase, the net result being that the
population of the entire district of Bethnal Green had been almost
stationary since 1891. The decrease in North Bethnal Green is
accounted for by the fact that just prior to the taking of the 1896 census
the Boundary Street Area, which is contained in this district, had been
cleared of its inhabitants by the London County Council, and that
the five thousand inhabitants had distributed themselves throughout
East London, a portion only finding accommodation in Bethnal
Green. At the present time the newly-built houses on the reconstructed
area are fully occupied, but by an entirely new set of
tenants, drawn not only from Bethnal Green but from other districts.
The same observations apply to the Ravenscroft Estate, a rebuilding
scheme carried through by private enterprise.
The depopulation and slow re-occupation of these areas, together
with the action of the London School Board, in clearing sites for
the erection of school buildings (Daniel Street in the North and