Report on the Census of Calcutta

REPORT 0:"1 TI-IE CENSLTS OF CALCUTTA. rraken on the Q6th February 189:1.. llY H. I!'. J. T. MAGUIRE, CENSUS OFFICER. - - ------- -- CALCUTTA: rRINTED AT 'THE BENGAL SEORETARIAT PRESS. 1891. REPORT o~ THE CENSUS OF CALCUTTA. Taken on the 26th February 1891. THIS report will be divided into two parts. The first part will relate to the preliminary arrangements up to and including Preliminary. the enumeration on the night of February 26th, 189l. The second part will deal with the results of the census after the completion of abstraction and tabulation. PART 1. PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 2. The work which was under my charge was the census of the town of Calcutta as d'efined by Bengal Council Act II of Area of operations. 1888, that is to say, the area bounded by a line drawn along the southern and western bank of the Circular Canal from the river Booghly' to the south of Beliyaghatta, till it meets the Pagladanga road; thence along the eastern edge of the Pagladanga road to a point where it meets the Chingrahat.ta road; thence along the southern edge of the Chingrahatta road to a point where it meets the South Tangor road; thence along the eastern edge of the South Tangor road to a point where it meets the Topsea road; thence along the eastern edge of the Topsea road to its junction with the Tiljullah road; thence westward to the South-Eastern Railway, then southward along the western edge of the line of the Railway, and westward along the south of the new embankment to the Russapuglah road; thence along the eastern edge of the Russapuglah road to its junction with the road leading to the Tollyganj bridge; thence along the southern edge of tliis road and its continuations, the Sharpore road, the Goragachee road, and the rraratollah road, to Nimuck Mehal Ghat, where it jOoins the Booghly; and thence along the left bank of the Hooghly to its junction with the Circular Canal. The accompanying map shows more conveniently than words can the difference between the area of t.he old town and that of the new. 3. For the purposes of the Municipal Act (1) Fort William, (2) the Esplanade, and (3) that part of Hastings north of the "SOuth edge of Clyde Row which has hitherto been excluded from the municipality, were excluded from the above area. But for the purposes of the census these portions of the town are included in it. ~ 4. The census of the port was also taken under the supervision of the census officer. The port census was taken of the water population of the river Hooghly within the following boundaries:- On the 'fIorth.-A line drawn from the boundary pillar at the Cossipore Gun Foundry Ghat to a point on the opposite side at Ghoosery. And on the 8outh.-A line drawn from a masonry pillar placed at the mouth of the Budge-Budge khal to a pillar on the Howrah side of the river Hooghly, bearing north-west of the first named pillar. lIt will be observed that the area both of the town and the port is much larger than at the tim.e of the preceding census, but the deductions to be drawn from this fact belong rather to th.e second part of the report. A ( 2 ) 5. The preliminary arrangements for the census commenced on August 1st, S d . f 1 1890, when Mr. George, who had performed urvey, an preparatIon 0 p ana. similar duties at the preceding census, commenced with a small establishment to have plans prepared for the several blocks. This was the first ~tep towards the taking of the census. The preparation of the plans in the old area of the town which had been surveyed in recent years, and maps of which were available on a scale of 99 feet to an inch, afforded no difficulty. It was only necessary to have the maps copied on tracing paper. For the added area maps had to be otherwise prepared. For this purpose the maps of the survey of Panchannagram estate and of a survey of the land adjoining E:idderpur docks were employed. But it was necessary first to have them enlarged, and then tested on the ground, as they did not contain sufficient details. This work was in progress at the time when I was appointed to assist the Chairman in the work. 6. I took charge on November 17th, 1890. At this time the plans for wards I to -XVIII were all but ready, the plans for wards XIX to XXII were from a fourth to a haH ready, while those for the remaining wards had not been commenced. The plans for wards XIX to XXII were checked while they were on a smaller scale, and enlarged afterwards, while those for wards XXIII to XXV were enlar5'ed before they were checked, so that they were ready for work as soon as they had been checked. 7. As soon as the plans had been prepared, copies of them had to be made for each block. These copies were made by carbon paper from the plans. A large staff, chiefly composed of apprentices who wished to be appointed enumerators, was 'employed for this work, and it was completed on December 20th for the town wards, and on January 26th for the wards of the added area. 8. In the old municipal area it was decided to follow the blocking of the Bl k' previous census in order to facilitate comparison 00 mg. with the results of that census. In the added area the blocking had to be done by the surveyors. The blocking had been put in hand before I joined in accordance with the instructions of the Provincial Super intendent which applied rather to rural than urban circumstances, and the blocks were in many cases too small. Even when I attempted to revise the blocking, I had to follow statistics given by the surveyors, which were statistics of buildings, not of houses; and as the arrangements for the suburbs were altogether so backward, I thought it better to allow a slight extra expenditure than by changes at the last moment to risk the success of the census. A general l'evision of the added area blocks should be made at the next census, but owing to the scattered nature of most of ~he outlying portions, these blocks will always contain fewer houses than the blocks of the old town. 9. As the block plans for each ward became ready, it was possible . ..' to commence the numbering of the houses and, Numbermg and regIstratlOn of the preparation of certain registers required for houses. .• I Th' . h mumclpa purposes. ese regIsters were III t e following lorms :- Register oj HO!eses in Ward No. _____ , Enumerator's Block No. _____ 2 9 10 11 12 -<l ~ .S .,!. t~~ .. t Qj .. 0 0 ,; ~':.~ ":S..a o Po " ...~ .00"", .." til '" ..<:l ... ].eo = c; '"is .8 ~ ~ .. = 0 eo ".~ ~ ~~ til :0 ,., .sN.E 'Il+> "" "' .. Name Name Name of Street. ... ._- :! .ort:d~ )::~~3 RE1IU.RKS • o~ ... cO of occupier. of owner. zg 0 " t~~ ~ t'"= ~.~ -oi a ",.a", ~.s.~ . ~~.~§.._ "iii. .~ 11 eo "'$.s~ :s" . O)~ ...... Q 'i:: = 0", :0 0 .a "0 ~g§-d ",~ p." "'"'" ~8~~ --_-III Z I:Q ~"" P!l" .... ..q"'t:I:I" I I ( 3 ) Register of Oonservancy --- Ward No. ----, Enumerator's Block No. ___ 11 12 13 .s I NUMBER OF Is TIIERE A No. OF IIORSEB COWS AND STABLE. INCLUDING BUFFALOES. PONIES. ,; z .... -0"'0 .~~ DO Register oj Drainage and Water Oonnecti(lns in Ward No. _______ , Enumerator's Block No. ---- 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 Whether house i. or is Is there a !Seriol not connected with No. of How many reo I No.o! drainage water servoir P Is there a No. of Nome House in the water.supply P What is its "p. well in the REMARKS. House in of Street. If connected. state pits inside tILPS in proximate House P Block. Street. whether with filtered House•. House? or unfiltered supply. size? Rouse enumerators were then appointed, and to some four and to some five of the blocks were allotted, and instructions were given to them in the following letter :- Under Section 196 of Act II (B.O.) oj 1888. I.-You are appointed to be an Enumerator in the area bounded N. by E. by S. by and W. by which contains blocks Nos. of Ward No. Your proceedings Will be under the control and supervision of who is the supervisor of the Circle in which the area lies. 2.-:-A. plan of each .of the blocks in J:our charge ~s made over to you. You will b.egin by numbermg the houses III each, commencmg at the rIght-hand top corner and proceeding from east to west to the western side and working then back nnd forwards from west to east and from east to west till the houses are all numbered. 1£ you find any house not entered on the plan you are to note its position on the plan and number it also. You are to observe that each' bari' or collection of houses in one compound is to be considered as one house. When you have given a house its number in the block, you will paste up a label on it thus Ward No. Block No. House No. and also note the number on the plan of the block in which it is situated. 3.-You will then proceed to fill up the three registers which are given to you block by block.

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