POPULATION GAINS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17176, 5 February 1930, Page 7

POPULATION GAINS

SOUTH ISLAND SCOBES SOME rUTUBE CITIES (Sped*) to the Herald.) . WELLINGTON, this tiny. ■ Discussing the local ■■movements of . iwpiilatioE in New 2camntl, the, Gov ,'.-: erament'Statistician ventures to suggest that what foi years has been call-- • cd <'thej drift to the North" -may . have slackened, and the tide turned in % Aho other direction. The total increase , in population daring the year ended March 31 last (excluding Maoris) was 10,457, in the north Island, equal to. 1.21 per cent. The South Island increase of 5804 was equal to 1.11 per cent. "Aa the excess of births over deaths in -the North Island was 10,064, and in the South Island 5206,j[' remarks the Government Statistician, "the gain *in population over and above the natural increase was 393 f« the North Island, and 598 for the South. This is the first time for several years that the gain in population, over and above the natural increase, in the South Island has exceeded that of tho North, and may possibly mean the turning, point of the pronounced northward drift which has ' occurred in recent years." . A detailed survey of tho grouping of New Zealand's population produced some illuminating results. Lower Hutt borough increased its population -.over 70 per cent, in the last four ■years, and it is found that during the past year the population growth was most marked in Wellington and immediate areas/ Auckland urban area, the greatest population aggregate of the Dominion, ' is credited with considerable growth, ahd the official report points out that ' ,the two suburban boroughs of Mount Albert and Mount Eden have practically reached the minimum population prescribed for a city. The borough populations of Invcrcargill and Palmerston .North also close to the official minimum which entitles them to become cities. : In Christchorch and Dunedin, growth has been noticeable ill, greater degree in the city aTea /' ■ than/-in the. suburbs.