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MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
OFTHE
BOROUGH OF SOUTHGATE
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present the Annual Report for 1958.
The year under review was once more relatively uneventful.
I have, of course, opened my Annual Report with this phrase for
several years. Need I say that it is an extremely felicitous phrase,
since it at least means that our Borough has been spared anything
in the nature of an epidemic or other calamity. And it also has the
additional merit of truth.
The incidence of infectious diseases will receive more detailed
attention in the section of the Report which deals with the pre'
valence and control of infectious diseases. We cannot, of course,
avoid the occurrence of these diseases. Indeed, when the illnesses
are mild, and when there is a marked absence of complications and
aftereffects, as was the case during 1958, one might say that the
pattern of life, so far as infectious diseases are concerned, gives no
cause for alarm. If one could say the same about accidents in the
home and on the roads, accidents which kill and cripple the young
to an ever-increasing extent, one would feel a great deal happier
than it is possible to feel at the moment.
The vital statistics for 1958 were satisfactory, and show very
little change from the figures which applied to 1957. The birth
rate fell from 12.1 to 11.4. The death rate was 10.9, as against
10.5 in 1957. Once again, there were no deaths from puerperal
causes. The infantile mortality rate, i.e. the number of infants who
died during the first year of life per thousand live births, was 21.0,
as against 20.1 in the previous year. These matters will also be
discussed more fully in the part of the Report which deals specifically
with the statistics and social conditions of the area. I feel,
however, that I must once again emphasize the known limitations
of figures, which can be most misleading. More important are the
trends, studied over a period of years. In this connection there is
nothing to indicate that these trends are significant, apart from the
fact that the vital statistics today, as compared with the statistics
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