SOUTH ISLAND'S CAPACITY
Comparing the densities of population in N?w Zealand and in the East, Sir William Hunt drew an interesting parallel between Java and the South Island in an address to the Canterbury Employers' Association. Java, he said, was of practically the same size as the South Island, and similar in configuration, having a backbone of high mountain ranges. In fact, Java was practically the South Island transplanted to the cropics. Yet Java supported a population of 44,000,000 people, as compared with the South Island's 500,000. The biggest town, however, had a population of only 260,000, about the same as that of Auckland, and covered no more than a third of the area of Christchurch, the houses being very crowded. The population was on the land, being comprised principally of peasant fanners who cultivated almost infinitesimal holdings. Every hill was. terraced and irrigated for agriculture, and Sir William said that he wondered, when he saw it, how many-fold the population :>f the South Island could be increased if a similar irrigation scheme was carried out here. i
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 23334, 28 October 1937, Page 5
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178SOUTH ISLAND'S CAPACITY Otago Daily Times, Issue 23334, 28 October 1937, Page 5
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