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4
Were these three important elements of the community efficiently
supervised, in doing so four times this number of ladies could find
ample employment.
The social make-up of our people appears not to lend itself to
voluntary work for a Public Authority, and financial and other difficulties
have militated against the fruition of the scheme for increasing the
Public Health Staff and for Maternity and Child Welfare work agreed
to by the Council in 1919.
The Report for the year 1920 may be looked on as generally
satisfactory.
A considerable number of deaths were attributed to Influenza,
although at no period was the disease present in an epidemic form as
in 1918.
The epidemic prevalence of Scarlet Fever in London and the
Metropolitan Area, towards the end of the first half of the year, showed
its influence in this District in September, and although a considerable
number of our people failed with the disease only one death was
attributed to it.
Subsequent to recovery I saw every person notified, and I am
satisfied that the disease has left little permanent ill effects on any of
the sufferers. To this extent the Public Health of the District suffered
little in consequence.
An accurate estimation of the population, though necessary, is just
now not possible with the material at my disposal, and the figures given
by the Registrar-General, 132,912, can only be approximately correct.
Our civil population is, I venture to think, likely to be nearer
135,000 than 132,912. The latter figure will show a death-rate greater
than what is true, but correct when compared with other Towns, whose
populations are estimated by the Registrar-General on a like basis.
Our Birth-rate which steadily fell from 24.76 in 1913 to 17.2
in 1919, is now at the higher level, and our natural increase of
population, i.e., excess of births over deaths, is greater than in any year
since 1910. Our lessened death-rate of children under one year of age
accounts for this.
Though greater by 7.5 per 1,000 than in 1919, our birth-rate is less
than that of the Country as a whole, and that of the 96 Great Towns,
but the difference is not very marked.
The difference in the birth-rates of the constituent parts of the
District are seen on page 20. Hoe Street holds an unenviable
position; it has the lowest birth-rate and the highest Infantile Mortality
rate. This is referred to later.