The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1947. DRIFT OF POPULATION IN NEW ZEALAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22513, 17 December 1947, Page 6

The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1947. DRIFT OF POPULATION IN NEW ZEALAND

the many interesting items in the Population Census, .1945, a Government publication just to hand, is material relating to that much-discussed trend in New Zealand—the urban drift. For many years the Dominion has been aware of a gradual but continuous movement from country to town.

In commenting on this development, the Population Census states: “It is a movement experienced in almost all countries and is indeed accepted by some points of view as not merely a natural process but also as inevitable and desirable. With the development of improved methods of agriculture and a more efficient transport system, the same proportion of the population is not essential to produce the necessary supplies of food and raw material from the farm. The transfer of many industries from the home to the factory has aided in the change. The requirements of modern life have added greatly to the number of necessary adjuncts to living which are produced in factories or at least best produced by urban communities. The amenities of life (from the more popular points of view) arc more easily to be bad in towns.” The facts thus published arc no doubt basically correct. Yet New Zealanders who realise that in this young country, so dependent upon primary production for its national prosperity, it is still necessary to develop back country areas, will not agree with the quoted points of view conveying the impression that the urban drift is desirable as well as inevitable. Primary and Secondary Industry

For many decades, perhaps generations, to come the stability of the Dominion’s cities and main provincial towns will continue to depend very largely on primary production and it will be impossible to maintain a truly balanced economy if too great an emphasis is placed on the building of factories which rely for their success on the availability of imported raw materials. Secondary industries which process the Dominion’s own resources, food or otherwise, are a different proposition altogether, and can furnish an economically legitimate method of increasing the working population. But it is still necessary to import from Great Britain, our best customer, a fair share of that country’s finished manufactures. In all these circumstances the urban drift can certainly not be hailed as desirable. The Dominion needs to increase the productivity of the land now under cultivation or used as pasture, and also to develop land which is producing practically nothing. Maps in the Population Census strikingly illustrate how the total population has increased in areas where the soil is so_ good that properties can be divided into comparatively small holdings._ They show, too, that the population is increasing much more rapidly in the North Island than in the South. This is due in part to the search for a warmer climate both by southern New Zealanders and by settlers from overseas. In the South Island there has been a decrease in population since 1936 in every county excepting those in the environs of Christchurch, Dunedin, and Tiraaru, and excepting, also, in the counties of Mackenzie, Waimea (Nelson), Marlborough, Takaka and Kaikoura. Incidentally, Ivaikoura is the only county in the South Island to show an increase of over 30 per cent above the 1936 figure. Trend in North Island Counties

In the North Island the counties revealing an increase of over 30 per cent are Waitemata, Manakau, Matamata and Ilutt. Next on the list, with between 20 and 30 per cent, are Tauranga, Rotorua and Waipa, and then a group of 12 with an increase of between 10 and 12 per cent which includes Wairoa, Whakatane and Taupo. The increases in Hawke’s Bay and Opotiki lie between five and 10 per cent, while those in Cook and Matakaoa are under five per cent. Waikohu and Waiapu disclose a decrease of between five and 10 per cent, and Uawa a decrease of between 10 and 20 per cent.

The maps dealing only with the movement of rural population since 1936 vary slightly from those relating to the total population. Fundamentally, it remains evident that the greatest increases are taking place throughout a broad north-east belt in the North Island ranging from the counties of Wairoa and Taupo at the southern end of the belt to the Bay of Islands, with Matamata, Waitemata, Manakau, Tauranga and Rotorua showing the largest concentrations. In the South Island Kaikoura again heads the list of increases. The fact that Cook, as well as Waikohu, Uawa and Waiapu, shows a decrease in rural population of between five and 10 per cent will not be unduly disturbing to the minds of those people who have confidence in the future of this part of the East Coast. The full benefits of improving communications have yet to be felt. Nevertheless, there also seems to be an urgent need for the development of deteriorating land in the back country. This process will not be facilitated by the urban drift.