View report page

17
excess observable at the previous Census. They were
dwelling in 2,964 houses, the number in each house
averaging, therefore, 6.67, or about 20 persons to every 3
houses. There were 362 houses uninhabited, and 33 in
course of construction. At the Census of 1861 the
average number to each house was a little over 7 (7.05);
so that notwithstanding the sanitary disadvantage of a
more condensed population, we have not since that period
increased the similar but greater disadvantages of overcrowding
in houses.
Birth-rate.—The births registered during the past year
were 645 in number, 316 males, and 329 females. The
average annual number for the past ten years was 528.
The birth-rate of the past year was 35 per 1,000, and the
rate of natural increase 15.45 per 1,000 of the entire
population.
Death-rate.—The total deaths which occurred during
the past year numbered 450; 232 were of males, and 218
of females. No less than 105 took place in public
institutions, viz.:—72 in the Surrey County Lunatic
Asylum; 13 in the House of Correction; 15 in the
Hospital for Incurables; 2 in St. Peter's Hospital; 2 in
the Reformatory for Boys; and 1 in the Patriotic Asylum
for Girls. The number of deaths in these institutions
exceeded the average by 20. The death-rate calculated
from the recently enumerated population and the total
deaths registered, would have been during the past year
upwards of 23 per 1,000; but, as has been explained in
previous reports, a rate so determined cannot be accepted
as the natural death-rate of this Parish, in consequence
of the undue augmentation of the death-register by the
mortality of those institutions, as the County Lunatic
Asylum and the Hospital for Incurables, whose inmates
are derived from without the Parish, undergo no natural
increase, and are subject to a very high mortality. It is
B