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WALTHAM HOLY CROSS URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL
To the Chairman and Members of the
Waltham Holy Cross Urban District Council
Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and Gentlemen),
I have pleasure in presenting to you the Annual Report,
including the Sanitary Inspector's Report, for the year ending
31st December, 1949.
In the statistical tables which follow, births and deaths
have been corrected for "inward" and "outward" transfersi.e.,
they refer only to persons who normally reside in the
district, and they include all births and deaths among them
wherever occurring. Infectious diseases, however, are
allocated to the district in which they arise, irrespective of
place of normal residence of the patient. All rates are based
on civilian population as in previous years.
The outstanding features of the year have been the
occurrence of outbreaks of measles (203 cases) and infantile
paralysis (6 cases). New cases of tuberculosis (15) have also
been more than the average notified in recent years.
The live birth rate (per 1000 of the population), having
risen from 16.9 in 1947 to 18.8 in 1948, has again fallen
sharply, to 13.9 in 1949. There has been a general tendency
for the birthrate throughout the country to fall, but not to the
same extent as locally. As the birthrate is usually a reflection
of the economic and social well-being of the community, one
f \ wonders to what extent the universally increased cost of living
and housing shortages have fallen unduly on the inhabitants
of this dislrict in particular. Overcrowding, however, is
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