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Health Department. The increase is shown thus : 1921, 383 ; 1922, 468 ;
1923, 551; 1924, 602 ; 1925, 658 ; 1926, 724 ; 1927, 750 1928, 752 ;
1929, 877.
The changes in "Westminster are not, as is mostly the case in the
City of London, only for commercial purposes. In addition to new
banks, insurance and shipping offices, large shops and other business
premises; new theatres, cinemas, hotels, restaurants, clubs, and institutions
connected with the pursuit of the arts and sciences are being erected.
These enterprises afford increasing opportunities for employment and
thus it is that the day population is multiplying rapidly. The public
health administration of the City is primarily concerned with safeguarding
the health of its citizens who reside within its boundaries but year by
year supervision of conditions affecting those who do not live in Westminster
but work in or otherwise spend most of their waking hours in
some pursuit within its borders requires increasing attention. Two
points may illustrate this contention. Firstly, the number of restaurants
which people away from home patronize has steadily increased and
now approaches 1,100. This is probably a larger number than in any
district of similar acreage in the country. It is a matter of prime
importance that sanitary supervision of everything connected with
restaurants should be carefully administered. Secondly, the incidence
of infectious disease. Although there were only two cases of smallpox
in residents of Westminster in 1929, there were 10 among those who
are at work there, and throughout the year 478 non resident contacts
who work in Westminster were under almost daily supervision for periods
entailing some 4,000 visits by officers of the department.
Births.
The births registered in Westminster during 1929 numbered 1,577,
but of these the homes of 751 were in other districts and 7 were
registered under the Legitimacy Act, and have therefore to be deducted
from the total. There were, however, 538 children belonging to
Westminster parents born in institutions outside the City, and these
must be added. This gives a net total of 1,357, which is 13 less than the
similar figure for 1928.
Although the Registrar General's estimate of the population of the
City is 2,700 below the figure of last year, the decrease in the births is not,
fortunately, proportionate. Women whose homes are outside the City
continue, in increasing numbers, to avail themselves of the facilities for
confinement which the large general hospitals in the City offer. The
number in 1919—mostly women whose home address was in
easy reach of the hospital, although in some neighbouring borough—was