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be difficult to determine with exactness the overcrowding or otherwise
of the poorer localities generally. In one row of houses, however, 12 in
number, in a part of the town where the poor most congregate, I have
found, from personal observation, 8 1/3 to be the average proportion of inhabitants
to each house—a proportion much too large, seeing that but
two of the four small rooms in these houses are calculated to be used as
sleeping apartments. The yearly increase of births amongst the labouring
poor, apart from the increase by immigration, more than ever demands a
remedy for the growing evils of overcrowding.
One rather curious feature of the recent census was that the females
in this sub-district were found to outnumber the males by as many as
881,—the former amounting to 3,681, and the latter to only 2,800.
Births during 1860—Excess of Births over Deaths.
The births during the year numbered 163—85 males and 75 females—
which, singular to say, is less than in any year since 1856, when a calculation
was first made for the purposes of a report, and less by 20 than
in 1859.
The excess of births over deaths in the past year is 77, which is less
by 3 than the excess of the preceding year.
Ages at Death—Social Position of the Deceased.
In the mortality table inserted above it is shown that there died
during the year 1860, 15 under 1 year of age, 9 from 1 to 5, and 3 from
5 to 10, which exhibits a decrease at these three periods of 18, 14, and
6 respectively, when compared with the death-rates at the same ages in
1859. The total deaths under 20, which includes all under 10, amounted
in 1859 to as many as 71, but in the past year 29 only at the same ages
were registered. From 20 to 40 and from 40 to 60 the deaths in 1860
were respectively 16 and 18, which gives an increase over 1859 of 7 and
9 at those two periods. From 60 to 80 and from 80 and upwards there
was again a decrease upon the rates of the year preceding of 5 and 3, the
deaths in the past year at the former ages being 19, and at the latter 4.*
At all ages, therefore, with the exception of those from 20 to 40 and
from 40 to 60, does the present table exhibit a considerable decrease in
the number that died in 1860, compared with the number in 1859, and
the total decrease being 33, it cannot be otherwise inferred but that some
good influences have been in operation to produce so satisfactory a
result, †
• Of the 4 persons who died at 80 and upwards, the greatest age reached was 91, the
deceased having been formerly a labourer in the market gardens. The other three were
respectively 81, 82, and 83, at the time of death.
† The deaths that have taken place (8 in number) in the Royal Hospital for Incurables,
during the year, have to be duly considered in any estimate formed of the advance