POPULATION TOTALS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10764, 12 May 1911, Page 4

POPULATION TOTALS.

HOW ARE THEY PREPARED?-

(Lyttejton Times' Correspondent.) Wellington,; May .11. Auckland's proud claim that .it<;.has not to stretch out to its . fifrthest suburbs or to neighboring centres of settlement to make up a population total bigger than that of any other city in.New Zealand moved:a Lyttelton Times representative .to inquire of the" Minister of Internal Affairs, .wlio has charge of the censusj how -'the city statistics are mado up. Mr Buddo remarked tliat there had been so many disputes about boundaries in the past, as a result of rival claims, tliat the' departmental officers would have nothiiig to do with any comparisons. The.v are, therefore, all unofficial. Mr Fraser, Government statistician, was also questioned,; and provided , the explanation that so far as the published aggregates, are concerned tile groupings are riot official. In the case of Auckland and Wellington the . aggregates represent the population; of the census districts under tlfe charge'of the respective chief enumerators. However, for Year Book and other statistical , purposes a rough, rate of assessing a city and suburbs .is used. The method is to take in with the city those boroughs which are contiguous to the city and those road districts which adjoin either the city or an adjacent borough. The idea is to show an area with a continuity of settlement. Lii the case of Wellington,' Karori, Miramar and Onslow boroughs are reckoned, in with the figures for the "city and suburbs." because there is a fairly unbroken population connection between them and the city, but Petoiie nnd Lower Hutt are excluded, because there is a distance between the groups of . population-. . Actually Lower Hutt ! is more • suburban to. Welling;tdiV''than Petone is, because nidrp' residents of Lower Hutt earn their living ill Wellington. It was suggested. ; some years: ago that a circle of a definite' radius should be described around the centre of a city to determine the litnits of that city on the score of population, but on reflection the proposal was oisiiiissfed as .'undesirable. The point is tliat though i the boundaries of the city , area can .be fixed, the suburbs may be constantly expanding and the matter of fixing a radius would load to all manner of perplexity. •,j., J. ; ■.