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REPORT.
Gentlemen,
I beg to submit the Seventeenth Annual
Report upon the Public Health of the Hamlet for the
year ending March, 1873, as required by the Metropolis
Local Government Act.
It will be seen that I am in a position to congratulate
the Vestry upon an unprecedentedly high birth-rate,
and an exceptionally low death-rate.
Births.
Table I. shows the number of births of each sex for
every quarter of the year, and the aggregate of the four
quarters as 4085: this is 498 more than for the previous
year, and exhibits a birth-rate of 43 per 1000 of
the population, or a fraction over one birth to every
23.25 inhabitants of the Hamlet. The birth-rate for
the whole metropolis during the same period was about
36.5 per 1000 population, and the same for the whole
country, or one birth to every 27.5 inhabitants. I have
estimated the average population for the year at 95,000,
altheugh now probably two or three theusand more. It
is difficult to account for the high birth-rate which prevails
year by year in the Hamlet, except that, in addition
to the normal increase of the population, there is also
continual additions by immigration of youthful adults.
The area of the Hamlet being 681 acres, and the
population 97,500, allows one acre for every 143.25
persons; these are of course not equally distributed,
the old parts of the Hamlet being the most closely
built upon, as in the West Ward.