THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1909. THE MILLION MARK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14440, 5 February 1909, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1909. THE MILLION MARK.

Tjiere is something inspiring about- the. fact- that, as the returns compiled by the Ilegistrar-general show, the population of Now Zen land increased dimiy; the past year to such an extent- that it is to be numbered now with seven figure?. Exclusive of the inhabitants of Cook Islands, ivlio, though they form part, legally and strictly, of the people of the Dominion, do so only by virtue of the extension of the boundaries of Noiv Zealand, i.ho. population is estimated to have reached, on flic 31st December la&t, a total of 1,008,373 souls. This figure is, it is to be remembered, merely an approximation, but it i.s probably an approximation that- comes tolerably close to the actual state of affaire. If there is any material discrepancy between the estimate and the, reality, it joH bcj.

found in the official assumption respecting the population of Natives. No such pains are taken to record the movements of the Maori population as are directed to tlio ascertainment of the ebb and flow of the European population of the country, and, in the absence of them, the llogistrar-genoral falls hack upon the latest census returns. Consequently, the estimate of the Maori population on the 31st December last was the same as it was at the end of eacli year intervening since the. census was taken in April, 1900. Unless there lias been a marked retrogression of the Native population, however —and this is the more unlikely since the tendency, as disclosed, by the returns at the recent census periods, has been in the direction of a gradual increase in the numbers of the Maori inhabitants,—-the official estimate of the population at Hie close of la.st year may he regarded as conservative rather than as extravagant. Thero is, at anyratc, no doubt that the people of our islands new number mere than a million. And the sense of enhanced importance which colonists who have taken their part in the development of the resources of the country and in tlio tip-building of this Britain of the .South may found upon this circumstance will net he weakened by the lcuowledgo (that the growth \)f New Zealand has been steady and 'continuous rather than irregular and spasmodic. For a score of years past the population has been annually mounting up by increments that have not fallen below 10,000 but have, until last year, never exceeded 30,000 in any twelvemonthly period, and it is necessary to go as far back as 1879 to find any year in which the increase was "renter than that of 31,],J8 recorded for last year. There sire, indeed, only four years iu the history of New Zealand which added more largely tu tlio population of the country than la.st year did. Tlio.se, as it happens, wore, with the exception of 1863, when there was a strong influx to the diggings, all years in which the influence of the immigration policy of the seventies was felt. But, while the population of the Dominion benelited mciro largely last year through the excess of arrival's over departures than lias been the case for a lengthy period, a. gratifying feature of tho returns consists in tlio proof they have afforded of continued improvement in tho birth rate, which, standing at 27,15 per 1000 of the population, js higher than in any year since 1803. This satisfactory symptom, moreover, is accompanied by a comparative reduction in the death rate, which dropped from 10.95 per 1000 cf the population in 1007 to f1.57, the consequence being that the centesimal increase of population through the excess of births over deaths was considerably higher last year than it has been for many yea re. The vital statistics for IUfIS may, therefore, when reviewed as a." whole, be regarded with a. good, deal of satisfaction by inhabitants'of Now Zealand who love their country.