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30
BATTERSEA EAST.
The following detailed statements of the sanitary condition
of the rapidly expanding population of this division
of the Sub-district possess more than the usual interest on
the present occasion, as for the first time the births registered
as having taken place in this division have been
separated from those registered in the Western division
of the Parish, so that a much more accurate resume can
be rendered than before.
This arises from the wise and judicious course
adopted by the Board, who, when the Registrar General,
in the latter part of the month of April, discontinued
supplying the Medical Officers of Health with copies of
the Death Register, and other information previously
given, decided, upon the advice of the Battersea Local
Committee, to pay the Local Registrars for the same, an
example which has been followed by nearly the whole of
the District Boards and Vestries in the Metropolis.
Population.—It is evident that no calculation as to
the sanitary condition of this division of the Sub-district
can be of much value unless the real population can be
ascertained, and that has always been a matter of considerable
difficulty in this parish, as its rapidly-increasing
population defies ordinary calculations.
In order to be well within correct limits, it should be
stated that in 1873 the mean population, according to the
mode sanctioned by the Registrar-General, was 31,344,
and in 1874 it would be 33,085, a difference of 1741.
This is the official increase of population, the erroneous