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in 2,574 four-room tenements, 12,924, or 1.26 per room. These average numbers it will be
observed do not differ materially from those ascertained at the inquiry.
Average number of persons per room in tenements of—
Census, 1891. Inquiry, 1901.*
One room 2.13 2.24
Two rooms 1.86 2.01
Three rooms 1.47 1.58
Four rooms ("four or more" in 1901) 1.26 1.25

Taking two children under 12 as equal to one "adult" (i.e., for this purpose, a person
over 12) the average number of persons per room, in terms of the adult, in the one-room
tenements, was 2.0; in the two-room tenements, 1.61. But for the purposes of the inquiry the
question of overcrowding lias to be narrowed down to the mode of occupancy of the single room.
The Registrar-General† regards two as the standard number of persons who may, with due
regard to health, &c., occupy a single room without overcrowding it. The rooms in municipal
lodging-houses, or workmen's dwellings, being small, do not usually afford space, superficial or
cubic, for healthy and comfortable occupation by more than two persons to a room; in regard
to such rooms, therefore, the standard is reasonable : but it is scarcely applicable—regard being
had to the size of rooms in the majority of the houses dealt with in the inquiry—to houses
built for occupation by single families, and "made down" to be let in tenements to two or
more families. There are many streets the houses in which contain single rooms adequate to the
reception of a family comprising six persons; e.g., the parents and four children under 12, equal
to four adults, without infringement of the Council's by-law, which requires for an adult 400
cubic feet of space in a room occupied both by day and night, and 300 feet in a room occupied by
day or by night only. This standard space, it must be admitted, is low; but by it a room
15 feet x 12 feet x 9 feet = 1,620 cubic feet, would provide the necessary space for such a
family without illegal "overcrowding." There are rooms, each containing 2,000 feet of cubic
* At the Census, 1901, the average number of persons per room, in the borough, as a whole, was, in
tenements of
One room 2.00
Two rooms 1.78
Three rooms 1.41
Four rooms 1.21
Taking two persons to a room (irrespective of age) as a standard of healthy occupation, the number of
tenements "overcrowded" was 4,599 (=21.3% of tenements of less than five rooms): viz., one room
tenements, 1,424 out of 5,695 (= 25 %); two-room tenements, 2,208 out of 7,776 (=28.4 %); three-room
tenements, 764 out of 4,757 (= 16.1 %); and four-room tenements, 203 out of 2,887 (= 7.0 %) See table
at p. 6 (April, 1902).
† Census of 1891, Vol. iv. pp. 21 and 22.