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15
In December I received a letter from the Retail Butchers' Association
directing my attention to the importance of seeing that the stall-holders engaged
in the meat trade had proper provision for storing every night any of their
stock unsold.
Readers of my previous annual reports will remember that my desire has
ever been to have costers removed from all our streets. They obstruct the
traffic and pollute the surfaces, especially the fish stalls. To clear up after
them costs the ratepayers a large sum annually and shopkeepers who are not
favoured (?) with their company may well object to pay this for the benefit of
people, some of them non-residents and aliens, who compete with them on
unequal terms.
VITAL STATISTICS.
My statistics refer to 53 weeks ending on January 1st, 1921. I am much
indebted to Mr. W. H. Miller, our Registrar of Births and Deaths, for
information promptly afforded whenever asked for.
The Registrar-General estimates our population at 73,529 for both deathrate
and birth-rate, whereas I estimate our nett civil population at 77,202, and
the gross civil population (including institutions) at 78,636. My figures are
more likely to be in accordance with facts, as there are few, if any, houses
vacant in Edmonton, and those occupied are more over crowded than ever.
I estimate the nett population at the middle of 1920 as 77,202 persons,
including 250 Edmonton people in North Middlesex Hospital and Edmonton
Workhouse.
The gross total number of births registered in Edmonton was 2,098, i.e ,
1075 boys and 1023 girls; of these 129 (64 boys, 65 girls) were illegitimate.
The gross total number of deaths registered here was 1087, i.e., 537 males, 550
females. So the births exceded the deaths by ion. You will remember that
1918 presented an unique record for Edmonton, viz., the gross total of deaths
exceeded that of the births by nine.
The natural increase of the population, that is, the excess of
the nett total of births over the nett total of deaths, was 1,921, minus 708,
equals 1213. The figure was 536 last year.
The area of the district is 3,894 acres (less 31 of water), and the density
of the population, or the average number of persons per acre of land, is 20.4.
This figure is calculated on the gross population, which includes the average
populations of Edmonton Workhouse and North Middlesex Hospital, and the
Epileptic Colony, and amounts to 78,636.