View report page

12
census returns for that year, was 9,481, equal to 7.39 persons to
a house. In 1871, the inhabited houses had increased, by 6,254,
to 15,735, and it might have been expected that the population
would have been about 116,281. It was, however, returned as
120,299—an excess of 4,018, and an increase of 50,191; the
average number of persons to a house being 7.64, and every
newly-inhabited house counting for 8.02 persons. In 1881, the
inhabited houses had increased, by 4,436, to 20,171, and it
might have been expected that the population would have
been 154,106. It was, however, returned as 163,151—an excess
of 9,045, and an iucrease of 42,852; the average number of
persons to a house being 8.08; and every newly-inhabited
house counting for 9.66 persons. In 1891, the inhabited houses
had again increased, to the number of 1,913, and it might have
been expected that the population would have been 178,438.
But it was returned as 166,308, an increase of 3,157 only, and
some 11,000 fewer than the anticipated increase, calculated on
the basis of the number of inhabited houses. The average
number of persons to a house was 7.53, but each newlyinhabited
house counted for 1.65 persons only. Discrepancies
like these cannot well be reconciled. We have seen that the
enumerated increase of population during the last five years,
since the census of 1891, was 4,157, a total which should
account for an increase of some 550 in the number of inhabited
houses; but it is difficult to believe that there has been so large an
increase, for only 50 houses were in course of building when
the census was taken in 1891, since which date building
operations in this parish have been almost at a standstill: it
appears, moreover, from information supplied by the Vestry
Clerk, that the number of empty houses in 1896 (1958) was
even larger than in 1891 (1904). The census number of
uninhabited houses in 1891 was 1,803, and 103 fewer than the
rate-books show. But the Registrar-General regards as
"inhabited," many houses which we treat as "empty" houses
viz., houses occupied by caretakers only. The approximate
number of inhabited houses on the rate-books in April, 1896,