A CENSUS BOGEY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19762, 13 April 1926, Page 8

A CENSUS BOGEY.

Ix is rather amusing to observe that a certain uneasiness or discontent has been manifested in the north over the thought that, when the census is taken on the night of April 20, the population tally of Dunedin will benefit by the inclusion of visitors to the Exhibition. The number of visitors whom it is anticipated Dunedin will be entertaining at a date so close to the fall of the curtfain at Logan Park has not been suggested, but from the gravity of the tone in which the matter has been discussed it might be supposed that it would be a matter of, at the very least, tens of thousands. In a sense, this northern notion of a Dunedin swollen by the influx of northern visitors, even in the very dying hours of the great Exhibition, has a pleasing ring, but facts are of greater significance than fancies. And less fragrant is the reflection that the populous and prosperous North Island grudges the South Island the few of its residents who may be expected to be statistically lost to it for a little while by reason of their presence in Dunedin on census night. “No one, presumably, will venture to accuse the enterprising promoters of the Dunedin Exhibition of desiring to tamper with or influence the returns of the census” is the curious introduction by a Wellington

contemporary to a very solemn examination of the position. The use of the word “presumably” would seem to imply that the Exhibition promoters have very narrowly escaped the suspicion of being very astute and wily Southerners indeed, It is gravely suggested that the presence of a number of North Island visitors in Dunedin on April 20 “may turn the scale against the North Island in the matter of securing another parliamentary seat at the expense of the South Island.” We are constrained to suggest that our northern friends have suffered a temporary loss of perspective, and in magnifying a really trivial matter have come very close to absurdity. While it is to be hoped that there will be many Exhibition visitors in Dunedin on the date fixed for the census, it is quite certain that the overwhelming preponderance of those '-biters will belong to the South Island. The proportion belonging to the North Island will be relatively insignificant, and any impression that it is likely to be such as to disturb the balance of parliamentary representation as between the north and the south borders on the ridiculous. Normally, Dunedin has the smallest floating population of any of the four principal centres. For once in a way, this city has a chance of making a better show- , ing in this relation, and Wellington, which has notoriously a large floating population, seems not quite pleased at the prospect. Ambition should be made cf sterner stuff and not admit the sting of gnats so insignificant. Wellington contemplates an Exhibition in the future. Perhaps the promoters will borrow a hint from the Dunedin enterprise and arrange it for a census year. So would the tables be turned on the soutlj with its ill-gotten statistical gains in population. Expression has even been given in the north to a lingering regret that it is too late to do anything with a view to having the census taken on a domiciliary basis. “Fiat justitia mat coelum!” The whole matter is rather petty for serious consideration. There is always the possibility—indeed, the probability—where the census is concerned, of one city or another having a temporary advantage. Time, the great leveller, adjusts the balance in due course, and nobody is appreciably the worse.