TIDE OF POPULATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18707, 13 May 1924, Page 8

TIDE OF POPULATION.

The apparent drift of population from the North Island to the South, observed by the Government Statistician a year ago, seems to have been checked and followed by a salutary • reaction. Surveying the position at March 31, 1923, Mr. Fraser calculated that during the two years since the census the increase in the North Island had been 31,039 and that in the South Island 21,789.: There was an obvious disparity between the two figures and the relative growth of population in the two islands disclosed by successive censuses, and without disclosing the basis of his estimates, the statistician concluded that there had been a " net loss by the North Island of several thousand persons who migrated, temporarily or otherwise, to the South Island." On the estimate, the North Island population was; 60.73 per cent, of the total is against 30.81 at the 1921 census, so that, apart from its traditionally more rapid growth, the North Island t

* had failed to the extent of about 1000 to maintain its. quota. However, an estimate of the position at March 31* last gives the' northern population ;as 793,533, an- increase during the year of 22,193, and the southern as , 500,401, t an increase of only 954.; Hence there is now 61.33 per cent, . of. the population ' in the North 1 Island, and if last year's estimate : is reliable, there has! been a gain of nearly 8000 to offset the loss during the previous two years! It is difficult .to determine what the theoretical increase should be, but statistician was right last year in saying that though the increase in the North Island in two, years-had been 10,000 greater than in they South Island, there had been a drift to the South, it may safely be concluded that when the North increases'in one year by 20,000 more than the South, the tide has turned into its normal direction.