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Gentlemen,
I beg to present my report for the period October 13th,
1909, to December 31st, 1909, as required by the Orders of
the Local Government Board, in addition to which I have
collated the statistics for the whole twelve months ending
December 31st, 1909. This I have done in order that the
statistics may be compared with previous years, as if they are
based on different seasons within a year they give widely
different results, and are apt to lead to erroneous conclusions.
Whilst one must regard the death-rate of 7.9 with great
satisfaction, at the same time the Public Health Department
must not take too much credit to itself on this account, as the
causes contributing to this satisfactory figure are largely those
on which it has no influence. The death-rate of any district
is high or low as a rule just as it has a high or low infantile
mortality. The infantile mortality during the last two or
three years has been low in almost every district, due very
largely to the climatic conditions, that is, mainly to cool, wet
summers, and, in consequence, to a low incidence of diarrhceal
diseases. Thus it will be seen that any figure tending to
decrease the infantile mortality, must also tend to lower the
general death-rate, and as year by year the birth-rate is falling,
so therefore the numbers of possible children that can die
is falling, from which it will be seen that other things being
equal, there is a gradual decrease due entirely to the falling
birth-rate.
The enormous influence of the infant mortality rate on the
general death-rate is seen by the accompanying chart.
The Zymotic death-rate (.72) is also satisfactory, there
being 41 deaths notified under this heading, which is, however,
11 more than last year.
The returns of vital statistics and infectious diseases
drawn up on forms supplied by the Local Government Board
are appended in Tables I., II., III., IV., and V.
Population.—The calculations for the deaths and other
rates in the tables of this report are based on an estimated
population at the middle of the year as 56,944, which figure is
obtained by the Borough Engineer ascertaining the number of
occupied houses in each Ward, and multiplying that figure
by the house factor for the respective Ward.
Area.-The area of the Borough (exclusive of area covered
by water) is 3,173 acres, and the density of the population is
17.1 per acre.
Births.—The number of births registered was 1,181 (605
males, 576 females), which is 37 more than last year, and
16