604 REPORT— 1883. 
7. IL. Sometimes population does not increase so rapidly as the quantity of pro= 
curable subsistence is increased. 
8. The rate of increase, when an opportunity occurs, depends to some extent 
on the definiteness of the organisation of the society in which it occurs. 
9. ILI. An increase of population while the relative limit is unaltered, necessarily 
implies social deyradation. 
10, But is the reproductive instinct always the efficient cause of this degrada~ 
tion? Under certain circumstances the reproductive force appears (1) only to 
perpetuate, in others (2) to accelerate degradation, while in some cases it appears 
(3) to initiate it. Imprudent habits are not equally to blame in all cases, and the 
removal of redundant population or suppression of imprudent habits would not 
act similarly in all these cases as a remedy. The existence of a redundant popu- 
lation is not to be regarded as characteristic of the normal condition of human 
society, but as symptomatic of some special social evil, the precise causes of which, 
and probable remedies for which in each particular case, demand our attention. 
3. On the Statistics of the Free Public Library, Notting Hill. 
By James Heywoon, 7.8.8. 
There are nearly 5,000 volumes in the library. 
Week | Sun- 
Days | days oes Days | days Total 
January . : - | 1,408} 131) 1,539); August (Bank1]] | 5 
February 1,497|. 157| 1.654|| Holiday) | 2236) | 56) 1,292 
March - 1,232] 130] 1,362 || September Closed] — — 
April (Easter). 1,096 84] 1,180 || October 1,681} 111} 1,792 
May (Whitsun) 1,388 74| 1,462 || November. . | 1,807 225 | 2,032 
June : rs 1,188 101} 1,289 || December (3) 9 
July 1,393] 101| 1,494|| weeks) . ee a 
Total — — = — — — 14,841} 1,288 |16,129 
The following Table gives the Number of Volumes Lent for Home Reading 
in 1882. 
All All 
Classes Classes 
of Books |Fiction} Total of Books |Fiction| Total 
except except 
Fiction Fiction 
January : 442 417 | 859 || July. : 422 448 | 870 
February . 4 515 478 | 993 || August (3 weeks) 256 300 | 556! 
March 557 576 |1,133 || September Closed | — — 
April 401 403 804 || October 289 400 689 
May. 465 | 482] 947 || November 469 | 494] 963 
June. 443 485 928 || December. 303 363 666 
Total . — — _— Se 4,562 |4,846 | 9,508 
1 All books called in. 
The number of volumes lent out remains nearly the same as in former years, 
but a better class of books are borrowed, and fewer works of fiction. 
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