POPULATION POINTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 November 1925, Page 5

POPULATION POINTS.

THE DRIFT TO THE TOWNS

AND A DRIFT TO THE NORTH

(Special to The Star.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 26. New Zealand depends) for its population growth not only on. the natural increase, but that obtained by slight progress, for it is the opinion of the Government Statistician, who has just brought his estimates up to date, that we have long lost) our record of having a rate of natural increase far exceeding other countries. Now, by the almost continuous decline in the birth rate, which cannot be counterbalanced by an equivalent fall in the death rate, our rate of natural increase is little more than half that of the early period oil the eighties. A saving feature is that the Dominion’s lowest death rate in the world enables it to show a. natural increase in excess of most countries —for the low blrtlh-rlate iis ia- twoiidy-wid'e problem. The rate of natural increase for 1924. although .a slight improvement on the previous year, was with that exception the lowest ever recorded. Only ail unprecedently low death rate prevented last year’s natural increase from being the smallest rate on record. Our population increased by 14,082 males and 13,300 females during the year, these figures including Maoris, and the total estimate of population of New Zealand to-day is 1,379,487. The tendency to live in the towns has been retarded so far by the great improvement in country conditions, due to better roads and electric lighting. The drift to' town has been a marked feature since 1906. The proportion of population in places of 2,500 inhabitants and over is 56.9, leaving 43.1 who live in. the rural areas-. Ten years ago the rural proportion was 44.75. THE NORTHWARD TENDENCY .

The net gain of the North Island in population last year was 24,591, or 3.11 per cent. The South Island went ahead by 6,543, or 1.30 per cent. “As the excess of births over, deaths in the North Island for the year was. 11,361.” states the Government Statistician, “and in the South Island 5.956, the gain in population over and above the natural increase was 13,300 for the North Island and only 557 in the South, thus affording evidence of either a continuance of the Northward drift, or an .almost unaimous preference for the North Island by new arrivals.” FEMININE MAJORITY COMING.

Immigration has generally shown a strong balance in favour of males, and this countered last year an excess of female births in New Zealand. But the Statistician believes that the Dominion has .passed the stage of pronounced masculine dominance (numerical). a n d'it ha s reached the stage when the proportions are: Males 1000, females 956. He adds that it seems probable that a feminine preponderance will be asserted within a comparatively short period of years, unless changes take place in the sex-composition of the immigration figures. Females outnumber males in all the larger towns (Hamilton excepted! and in the older and more settled districts generally.