SOUTH CALIFORNIA

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 77, 13 March 1933, Page 8

SOUTH CALIFORNIA

THICKLY POPULATED AREA LOS ANCELES AND LONC BEACH GREAT U.S. SHIPPING CENTRE Southern California lies on a coastal plain with attractive mountain ranges behind it and the ocean at its front door Although its development Is just well begun, Los Angeles harbour, which is co-ordinated with Long Beach, already ships out more tons of American products than any other port in the United States not excepting even New York. In 1930 New York’s exports and stii|>inents aggregated 15,500,000 long, tons, while those of Los Angeles were 20.750.000 long tons. In the last decade a metropolis larger than Hamburg (Germany) has been built within 90 minutes’ ride by automobile from the consolidated harbour of Los Angeles and Long Beach. “Experience yields a reliable basis of phophecy regarding the future greatness of Los Angeles,’’ says Dr. Gordon Watkins, professor of economics in the university there. Writing on January 3 last he stated that according to the latest census the population of the State of California increased from 3,426,861 in 1920 to 5,677,251 in iu3O. Southern California showed an increase of 112 per cent, while the city of Los Angeles grew from 576,673 to 1,238,048, a nett gain of 114.7 per cent. Nor must one forget that the population of Los Angeles has more than doubled in every decade except three since 1850, the year of its incorporation, when it was a mere village of 1600 inhabitants. “There is every reason,” he says, “to believe that the so-called Los Angeles basin is destined eventually to have a population of some 25,000,000 inhabitants, approximately 15,000,000 of which will be in the Los Angeles county.”