[Report 1907] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey.

  • Guernsey (Channel Islands). Council.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1907] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/32
    SUNSHINE. Sunshine in Guernsey for year, 1,860 hours. Average amount of sunshine for past 14 years, 1,916'2 hours. POPULATION. The increase of births over deaths for the year was 462, and the population at the middle of 1907 may be estimated at 43,150. Emigration seems to have been greatly checked compared with 1906, when the destination of most persons leaving the island was Canada. Many of these emigrants have returned to Guernsey, which is not surprising, as in a country where employment must be limited in many occupations during the long and rigorous winter, it is difficult for men without capital to fall back upon, or skilled artisans to maintain themselves during this time, even if they have not families to support' For statistical purposes it is better to under, rather than to over estimate the population of any area, and I think that in the case of Guernsey this has been done. The census returns of 1901 state that in Guei’nsey and the adjacent islands 1,898 persons of foreign birth were then resident, of whom 1,792 were of French nationality. Since then the coming of numbers of French religious orders has greatly added to the alien population, and if the proportion of Alderney and Sark be deducted, an estimate of 2,000 French people resident in Guernsey would be a fairly correct one. The law of registration applies only to labourers, workmen, and servants, but this law must be more honoured in the breach than in the observance, as during the years 1906-7, only 126 such persons were registered. It is evident that a large percentage of the French population are law- abiding and of a desirable class, but unfortunately the remainder are the very opposite.