View report page

Census, 1901.
The crude uncorrected totals of the enumerated population
of the different districts have been published, from
which it would seem that the population of St. Marylebone
has sank to 133,329. In 1896 the population was
estimated at 141,188. In round numbers, therefore, the
population has decreased from 141,000 to 133,000, a decrease
of 8,000. The calculated birth and death rates for the last
two or three years are, therefore, too low by about 1 per
1,000. Taking, for instance, the death-rate of the Borough
for the past five weeks, this, calculated on the old figures,
gives 15.7 per 1,000; on the recent enumeration, 16.4.
Until the official figures are published, however, showing
the distribution of the population, the results cannot be
properly used or discussed.
Plague.
The Health Officers for the various Ports continue to
take the addresses of passengers arriving in this country
from plague infected parts, and to forward the same to the
various districts to which the passengers are bound. A
considerable number of such passengers are supposed to
have arrived in the Borough during the last five weeks, but
in about ninety per cent, the addresses cannot be verified.
It would thus appear that either the passenger knowingly
gives a false address, or that circumstances occur altering
his destination. If the Marylebone experience is any
indication of what occurs generally, then the matter is one
demanding legislation. It is obviously most important
that in such a disease as plague all persons coming from an
infected locality should be, for a week at all events, under
the surveillance of the Sanitary Officers of any district in
which they reside, and it should be incumbent on them to
notifiy to the authorities their movements within the time
of possible incubation. Such a course would not interfere
with personal liberty, nor should it cause annoyance or
inconvenience.
4