188 TRINIDAD. 



In this case the difference is in favour of births, viz., 100 

 births to only 57*81 deaths, showing an increase of 284 per 

 annum, and that for the town of Port of Spain alone. 



As these returns were extracted by myself from the registries 

 of Trinity Church and the Catholic cathedral, I regard them as 

 perfectly correct, and consider the latter result nearer to the mark 

 than the former. 



I have not included the mortality of the year .1854 in the 

 above returns, since it may be regarded as an exception, on ac- 

 count of the great ravages occasioned by cholera. In that year 

 the grand total of deaths amounted to 7,636. In times of severe 

 epidemics the number of deaths by ordinary causes decrease. 

 Supposing, then, the average of the six preceding years to be the 

 mortality by natural causes for 1854, that average being 2,318, 

 there would remain 5,318 deaths attributable to cholera. Now, 

 taking the population at 73,000 inhabitants, on account of the large 

 accession of immigrants since the census, the proportion of deaths 

 from cholera would then be 7 '28 per cent, for the whole island. In 

 Port of Spain the mortality has been, according to the returns of 

 the cemetery, 1,986 ; taking the population in round numbers at 

 18,000 souls, the proportion would then be, for the town, 11 '03 

 per cent. Thus, not only is the mortality of the whole island, but 

 even that of Port of Spain, under that of the other West India 

 Islands which were attacked by cholera. 



I wish now particularly to call attention to a few interesting 

 conclusions which naturally flow from the above statistical 

 facts. 



The number of females being, in the whole island, 32,969, 

 and that of males 36,621, it is evident that, cceteris paribus, the 

 ratio of births must be smaller in Trinidad than in other countries 

 where the sexes are equal, or nearly so ; and the comparatively 

 small proportion of births is thereby easily accounted for. 



A rather curious fact is the great overplus of females inhabiting 

 towns, as compared with the number of males. The towns of 

 Port of Spain, San Fernando, and St. Joseph, exhibit the following 

 numbers : 9,091 males and 12,237 females; leaving for the 

 rural districts 27,540 males, and 20,732 females, that is to say, 

 the proportion in the towns is 100 females to about 74 males, arid 

 in the rural districts, 100 males to about 75 females. This I con- 



