TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 167 
by which we gather, that, of late years, the tide of population in Leeds has steadily 
flowed towards improved ventilation and surface condition : since the increases in seven 
years, from 1851 to 1858, in the West and North-west Wards, exceed the per centage 
decennial increases of the ten years between 184) and 1851, There has been a gra- 
dual decrease in the number of inhabitants in the Mill Hill Ward, which is in the 
centre of the town, and mainly composed of wide and well-ventilated streets; but 
here the population has given way to warehouses, shops, and offices. And in the 
Kirkgate Ward there has also been a continued decrease which we can understand ;— 
for though it is also in the centre of the town, as it were, and mainly occupied by 
shops and warehouses, yet its dense courts and yards lie contiguous to a river, which, 
though a trout stream within the last seventy years, having footways clothed with 
avenues of trees, is now nothing but an open sewer, containing the sewerage of Brad- 
ford, Shipley, and all the mills, houses, dyehouses, tanneries, and workshops, which 
erowd its western banks; and cannot, therefore, be healthy or pleasant to those who 
have not the means of removing elsewhere. We see, in fact, towards the less densely 
populated wards, a gradual movement made from the old localities, as well as a steady 
increase of a new population. Mr. Baker proceeded to exhibit the diminution in the 
rate of mortality resulting from the sanitary improvements effected by the Local Im- 
provement Act and the Burial Act. In the north districts, for example, in the seven 
years from 1851 to 1858 the deaths decreased 25 per cent., the population meanwhile 
increasing in density, and the ratio of births to the population remaining the same, 
So also in the south-east district, with an increased population, the deaths decreased 
16 per cent., and in the west district the mortality diminished 5 per cent. He con- 
sidered that other ameliorating influences had been at work within the period in 
question, such as compulsory vaccination, the decrease of cellar occupancies, emigra- 
tion to better-ventilated districts, improved regulatiens as to hours of labour, improved 
wages, temperance societies, a higher social and intellectual state brought about by 
lectures, cheap publications, and institutes for mutual improvement, all of which re- 
medial elements Leeds possesses in an eminent degree, The importance of sanitary 
measures at Leeds could scarcely be over-rated, considering that 18 per cent. only of 
all its houses exceed £10 annual rent—a fact which showed how largely the popula- 
tion was composed of the working classes, Referring to some of the larger trades 
conducted in the town proper, he mentioned the following as being the staple :— 
Woollen, worsted, flax, silk, dyeing, machine-making, leather, paper, tobacco, sanitary 
pipe and fire-brick, glass, earthenware, glue, and chemicals, coal, stone, railway ter- 
minals, and making garments for exportation. He doubted whether the prevailing 
manufacture of Leeds was at the present time woollen, or the fabrication of machinery. 
The interests engaged in the woollen trade were—the manufacturer, the finisher, and 
the rag-grinder ; and, as illustrative of the condition of this important branch of trade, 
he introduced these statistics :-— 
f , Nominal First process : Power 
First process. Firms, horse power. spinning. : Gigs, looms. 
Mabiacddudedsse ose 68 bop 1936 vat 8640 ons — 952 
PUD sossppdencdo0r 48 a 860 ae — PPP S110) — 
0 (es 12 oes 128 Pm — 2 — = 
128 2924 8640 860 952 
Total number of persons employed, 10,193. 
The wages of these processes are as follows :— 
Annually. Weekly. Per person 
ae £ 8. Bae) Sena weekly 
First process, manufacture,..,......110,120 8 0 2117 14 6 ia 7 
Second, finishing..................... 254,215 0 0 4888 15 0 15 62 
MMI, Tags. ese cij sii veoess. dee ees 5760 16 0 110 15 0 6 Of 
Potal vrsiwielimeneiicies £370,096 4 0 7117 4 0 10 O} 
Mr, Baker presented a mass of information relating to other branches of industry car- 
ried on to a large extent in the town, and employing 45,829 persons, whose wages he 
computed at £1,752,689 per annum, or £33,734 a-week. Speaking of the poverty 
