CENSUS SURVEY

Evening Star, Issue 25677, 28 December 1945, Page 4

CENSUS SURVEY

PREVIOUS TRENDS EMPHASISED REPORT BY GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN Preliminary totals for the 1945 census disclose an increase over 1936 of 128,413, or 8.2 per cent. If the Maori population is excluded, the increase is 113,476, or 7.6 per cent. The intercensal gain of 128,413 does not take into acocnnt 44,096 members of the armed forces overseas at the time of the census, but their inclusion would bring the total population of New Zealand to 1,746,319, and make the intercensal gain 172,509, equal to 11 per cent., reports the Government Statistician. A noteworthy feature of available results has been the disparity. in the rates of population growth in the North and South Islands. The North Island increase of' 128,192 accounts for 99 8 per cent, of the total 1 increase of population. Some 67.3 per cent, of the population were in the North Island, and 32.7 per cent, in the South Island. This northward drift of- population is not a new feature, but the movement has, no doubt, been accentuated by war conditions. Partly arising out of the same causes, and again a continuation of existing trends, has been the drift from rural areas to the larger towns. As an indication of this drift, it mav be observed that the proportion of the population in cities and boroughs was 63.1 per cent, in 1945, and ,59.3 per cent in 1936. Associated with this trend is the marked increase in counties ■which border on the larger centres. The extent ,to which smaller counties have declined in population may be illustrated as follows: —In the South Island, of a total of 41 counties with populations of under 5,000, only seven recorded any increase at all, and onhv four of these increased by over 100 persons. Similarly, in ■ the North Island, out of 44 countie! with populations of under 5,000, oily seven recorded gains. The absence of men overseas must, of course, te taken into consideration. Also it miy be noted that in 1936 several counties had relatively large numbers of prospectors assisted under relief scheme!. In short, the movement in the past intercensal neriod may be summarised briefly in the observation that trends noted in preceding periods, have been increasingly manifest. i