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63
necessary; and it is doubtful if even then the exact number of
occupants would be known. In the absence of this, we may assume
that the rate of increase of tenements in the district during the
intercensal period 1891—1896, which was 1,034 per year, has been
maintained up to the present, and that the proportion of over,
crowding existing in 1891 has not diminished since that date. I am
of opinion, that these assumptions are fully justified, and in reality
fail to represent wholly the congested state of the tenements occupied
by the Working Classes.
The total number of tenement houses in Hackney at the census
1896 was 46,611, which, if the above rate has been maintained
would have increased at the present time to 51,521, and if the
proportion of overcrowding remained the same would give at the
present time in round numbers, 4,500 tenements in Hackney, or 8.7
per cent. of the total, with more than two persons occupying each
room, that is to say overcrowded. It will be seen that this percentage
agrees closely with the actual percentage of tenements found overcrowded
during the inspection of houses let in lodgings; therefore I
am inclined to believe that 8 per cent. may be regarded as a fairly
reliable estimate of the overcrowding of tenement dwellings in the
borough of Hackney at the present time.
CAUSES LEADING TO OVERCROWDING.
The causes of social phenomena are almost always complex and
defy any very exact analysis; but proximate causes are generally
nore or less apparent, and in considering those of overcrowding,
the following, I am of opinion, have exercised the largest influence :—
(a) INADEQUATE BUILDING OF WORKMEN'S
DWELLINGS.
Prom the following table it will be seen that the inhabitated houses
it the census of 1881 averaged 6.l occupants per house; at the
census of 1891 this average had been raised to 7.0 per house; at the
census of 1896 to 7.3 per house, and I estimate the average to be 7.4
per house at April, 1900.