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14
annihilated the males of the conquered country. The chief places
where marked disproportion occurs are islands; but what the law is
governing which sex shall preponderate is curiously difficult to
determine. Inland places for some reason or another shew generally
a much greater uniformity. There is a marked female preponderance
in the Canary Islands, and a marked male preponderance in Tasmania
and New Zealand. In a French colony called Reunion there are
said to be 1,000 negroes to 600 Creoles and mulatto women. This
subject is an interesting one, and I make these few remarks with the
intention of returning to it again another time.
WATER SUPPLY.
I place before you, in a table, the analysis of the water of the
New River Company, month by month, for the year 1876 and
1877. The whole of Islington is supplied by this Company, and
I deem it a matter of the greatest importance to watch carefully
and constantly the purity of the water as delivered by the Company
to the consumers. To do this, I have myself taken a
sample for analysis every month from the mains of the Company,
either from the Cab Rank at Islington Green, or from the supply
at the Vestry Hall, the Company's officers having no knowledge,
either of the day or of the time, when the sample is so taken.
This, I consider, may be regarded as a genuine test of the quality
generally, of the water supplied. There could be, in fact, no better
test, unless it was a daily analysis, which, I need not say, would
be next to a practical impossibility. Excepting in January 1877,
in no case was the water found, when drawn, to be in the slightest
degree turbid, showing the efficient filtration to which the water is
subjected before delivery. Indeed, I may say, from a knowledge
both of the sources from which the New River Company derive
their supply, and also of the works belonging to the Company, that
the water is unimpeachable. The New River Company derive their
water partly from the River Lea, at a point just below the confluence
of the River Rib, and partly from the beautiful chalk springs
near Ware. The water of the River Lea, at the point of the
Company's intake, is exceedingly pure and excellent in every
respect. The mixed river and spring water flows down a
conduit, called "The New River, " the length of which is about 28