SWELLING THE TOWNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 47, 24 February 1923, Page 6

SWELLING THE TOWNS.

An interim return of the census of 1021 that has just been issued contains this important paragraph: "Recent immigrants—that is, those arriving within two years prior to the census—appear to be fairly evenly distributed over the Dominion. The majority, it would seem, have settled in the town. Out of 29.036 persons who have resided in New Zealand for less than two years, no fewer than 17,270 are living in the fifteen urban areas —that is. the large towns. Immigrants of an earlier date are rather more evenly distributed in urban and rural communities." The distribution figures for the last two years are not available, but there is no reason to suppose they are any different from these. The majority of immigrants who are coming into the country go to swell the town populations. A certain amount of such addition to town populations is desirable and, indeed, inevitable, but there is something radically wrong when in an undeveloped country like this so many newcomers are absorbed in this way. The drift to the towns is .marked. In 1901 the percentage of rural population was 00.87 and the urban 39.13; in 1921 the figures were rural 51.23, urban 48.77. These figures and the returns of immigrant distribution are fresh arguments for a vigorous land settlement policy.