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to 12869, and for present purposes it is assumed
to be 12975 at the middle of 1898.
This estimate, however, is a mere calculation
worked out on a certain system for all places,
and should of course be modified by any local
factor known to be operating strongly in one
direction or the other. This is notoriously the
case as regards Tolworth, owing to the large
amount of building that has been going on there
during the past year or two; so being desirous of
correcting to some extent the estimate of the population
of that part of the District by the number
of new houses erected, (the birth rate for the
year 60.8 per thousand being absurd, since the
birth rate for England and Wales is only 29.4), I
made application in the proper quarter for the
number of new houses erected during the year, but
was unable to obtain it, so that the correction
cannot be made as applying either to the birth
or death rate, and some further deductions and
comments I wished to make must consequently
stand over.
Taking the number, however, at 12975,
which is officially given me, the death rate works
out at 12.6 per thousand of the estimated population.
That for England and Wales for the same
period is 17.6.
The deaths from the principal Zymotic
diseases were nine, giving a rate of 0.69, which is
of course extremely low, and approaches that of
the rural districts as distinguished from towns,
where it is always higher. That for England and
Wales is 2.22.
Births.
The births were 311, divided into 168 boys
and 143 girls, comparing favourably with 291 in
1897 and 281 in 1896. This is probably due to
the largely increased population at Tolworth,
4