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118
housing.
Clarendon Street Area.—In the last report the vital statistics, etc., of the Area were dealt
with at some length, and comparisons between housing conditions found in 1901 and 1911 and
between the average morbidity and mortality rates for 1896-1900 and 1907-11 were instituted.
It does not appear, therefore, to be necessary to do more than call attention to some of
the more important data for the past year.
At the time of the annual cleansing 5,683 inhabitants (including 1,978 children under 10)
were enumerated in the area, constituting 1,469 tenements of families. The distribution,
according to the number of rooms occupied, was:—
In one room 599 families, comprising 1,423 persons, 362 being under 10.
In two rooms 696 „ „ 3,266 „ 1,304 „
In three ,, 158 „ „ 908 ,, 286 „
In four „ 12 „ „ 76 „ 22 „
In five „ 2 „ „ 16 „ 4 „
Forty-one tenements, containing in all 57 rooms, were found to be overcrowded, the inhabitants
of the overcrowded tenements numbering 224 persons, of whom 108 were under 10
years of age. The proportion of tenements overcrowded was 2.7, and of inhabitants 3.9 per cent.
In contrast with those proportions may be cited the fact that in 1901 10.7 per cent. of the
tenements and 16 0 of the inhabitants of the area were found to be overcrowded.
The overcrowded tenements comprised 27 of one room, 13 of two rooms, and 1 of four.
The tenements were situated—in basement 17, on ground floor 5, on first 7, and on second 11.
The four-room tenement consisted of basement and ground floors.
Although there has been an improvement in the housing conditions, measured by the
reduction in the amount of overcrowding, the rates of morbidity and mortality show no signs of
decreasing. This disappointing fact is clearly shown by the figures given in Table 61, where
the averages for the two quinquennia, 1896-1900 and 1907-11, are compared with the rates
observed during 1912 and 1913, the rates for those years for the rest of the Borough being
included for the purpose of contrast. It has to be remembered that the population of the area
is a comparatively small one, now under 6,000, and that as a consequence a small addition to
the number of cases (or deaths) in any year makes a much greater increase in the morbidity (or
mortality) rate than in the case of the Rest of the Borough. Even with that reservation
the increases in the morbidity rates are very disappointing. As regards morbidity, the
most satisfactory feature is the absence of puerperal fever, no case of which has been reported
since 1906.