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4
Infantile mortality 120 per 1,000 births.
Zymotic death rate 2.2 per 1,oco inhabitants.
Respiratory death rate (including Phthisis) 3.2 per 1,000
inhabitants.
Phthisis death rate 1 per 1,000 inhabitants.
Death rate from other forms of Tuberculosis 5 per 1,000
inhabitants.
POPULATION.
Eight years have now elapsed since the official census was made,
and the further we are removed in time from that census until the
next, the more inexact our estimates become, and the less reliable
are all vital statistics.
In former reports the various methods by which an estimate of
the population is made were discussed, and reasons were given for
adopting the number of houses in occupation as the basis. But
even this method is liable to considerable error. The number of
inhabitants in each house rose from 5.9 at the census of 1891 to
6.2 at the census of 1901. This increase was due to the fact that
houses formerly occupied by one family were converted into flats.
This process is still going on, and some of the new houses have
been erected in the form of double tenements. Between June 30th,
1907, and June 30th, 1908, 310 single tenement dwelling houses
were erected and 25 double tenement ones. An average of 6.2
persons per bouse is probably below that which obtains at the
present time. On the other hand, the percentage of uninhabited
houses is higher now than in 1901.
At the census of 1901 there were 6,540 inhabited houses in the
district. Between March 31st, 1901, and June 30th, 1908, 2,620
dwelling houses were erected. In this latter figure double tenement
houses are reckoned as one house.
If the same number of persons per house and the same percentage
of "empties" as the figures at the census disclosed, be
allowed, the estimated population would be 55,176.
The figures in this report have been based upon an estimated
population of 55,000. This figure is more likely to be an under
estimate than an over estimate of the population.