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4
Deaths.
The total mortality, Table I., during the four quarters
was 1904, showing an excess of births over deaths
of 2181, and a death rate for the year of 20 per 1000
population living. The deaths were also, with a larger
population, 296 less in number than the previous year,
and 175 below the average of three previous years.
There has been apparently considerable difference in
the mortality of the five wards, the death-rate in the
West Ward being, as usual, the highest, and the South
Ward, in this instance, the lowest. With reference to
this point, I think the great disparity between the rates
in the West and South Wards may bo partly duo to
some of the deaths occurring in certain parts of the
South Ward having been accredited to the West Ward,
on account of the alteration in names and re-numbering
of Oxford and Charles Streets, which pass through both
Wards, and contain a large population. The two registration
districts are not defined by Wards, and even
the parish map is not now a sufficient guide for me to
always accurately decide as to which Ward the number
of a house in one of these long streets belongs.
Whether this assumption is correct or not, it is certain
there was a remarkably low death-rate in the South
Ward.
Zymotic Diseases.
The extent of and mortality from this class of disease
afford the most reliable bases upon which to found
an accurate judgment of the general sanitary condition
of a district containing a large population, and the
probable influences exercised by such condition upon
the public health. Judged by this standard, the sanitary
condition of the Hamlet, and the health of its
nearly 100,000 inhabitants, during the period under
review, must have been remarkably good, the mortality
from infectious diseases having been invariably low.