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11
Population.
During- tlie course of the year there lias been some
exodus of population to quieter areas. The latest records
of valuation assessments gives a figure of 17,040
habitable premises, which on a basis of -3.61 persons per
house, represents a potential population of 61,514. The
latest number of inhabited houses according to the rate
Ixioks is 16,058, which on the same basis of calculation
represents an estimated population of 57,969, but I
would prefer, however, to estimate the present resident
population at 56,000.
t
The Registrar General's mid-year 1940 estimates
are: —
(a) Resident population
(b) Average population appropriate to
the calculation of death rates
56,580
Births.
Six hundred and sixty-nine births were notified
during 1940, of which sixteen were stillbirths and six
hundred and fifty-three live births. The number of
births and stillbirths registered by the Registrar General,
which have been adjusted by inward and outward transfers,
according to the residence of the parents, were 770
live births and 26 stillbirths.
The Birth Rate for 1940, calculated on 770 live
births, is 13.2, as compared with 13.9 for 1939.
Stillbirths.
Twenty-six stillbirths were registered and records a
welcome reduction on thirty-nine for the previous year.
We cannot claim to present a complete statistical
record of foetal mortality in its broadest sense until
abortions and miscarriages are brought into the field "1
notification. Recent discussion has drawn attention to
the prevailing chaotic position in tlie world with regain
to the precise legal definitions of abortion, stillbirth and
live birth, and the need of clearing up the difficulties
of interpretation—the term abortion does not appear in
our own legal code.