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STATISTICS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF THE BOROUGH.
Area (acres): Land, 2,554 5. Water, 50. Total, 2,604 5.
Population—Registrar-General's estimate —
Number of inhabited houses according to Rate Book —
Rateable value £419,320
Sum produced by a penny rate £1,530

I am indebted to Mr. J. B. Thomson, the Engineer and Surveyor, for the above
information.
For general administrative purposes and for the main statistical purposes of this
report the district is divided into six Wards with boundaries as detailed in previous
annual reports.
The majority of the houses in the district are occupied by good class working
people, chiefly engaged in the local factories and workshops. These include food, jam,
and chemical works, engineering, hosiery, paint, dye and wood works, laundries, etc.
There are no trades carried on which are at present scheduled as offensive trades.
DEATHS AND DEATH RATE
Whole District.
Total deaths, 492. (Males, 249 ; Females, 243).
Crude Death Rate,—
For extracts from vital statistics and causes of death see Appendix Tables II and III.
It will be observed that the total number of deaths is higher in 1943 than in 1942.
The number of deaths from notifiable infectious diseases, excluding pneumonia and
tuberculosis was 2 in 1943, as compared with 7 in 1942. There were no deaths from
diphtheria. There was again an increase in the deaths from tuberculosis and other
respiratory diseases, but in 1943 the increase was very much less than in 1942. In view
of the fact that there was a country-wide influenza epidemic during 1943, the smallness
of this increase is very satisfactory. The increase in tuberculosis deaths gives cause for
some anxiety, as persons affected were mainly between the ages of 20 to 40. There can
be observed also a persistent increase in the number of deaths from cancer of all forms.
As cancer is a curable disease if diagnosed in the early stages, it seems that the public is
still unwilling to undergo investigation of symptoms until the disease has reached an
intractable phase.
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