The Southland Times FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1945. Empty Country in the South

Southland Times, Issue 25795, 5 October 1945, Page 4

The Southland Times FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1945. Empty Country in the South

THE Minister of Works, Mr Semple, produced in the House of Representatives a simple formula for a redistribution of population. He was speaking on Wednesday of the Rangitata irrigation scheme, which he said had brought a five-fold increase in the productiveness of the land. “Thousands of people,” he added, “would be attracted there.” And he seemed to take the view that if irrigation is continued in the South Island the drift to the north will be stopped. Is the problem as simple as that? All the evidence so far has suggested that the movement of population has nothing to do with a search for land. The South Island has its bare patches; but it also has the richest farmlands in New Zealand, watered by rivers and streams that have no need of engineering assistance. Every province in the island could carry several times its present population. But those who go to the north are not, as a rule, looking for farms. The new settlement now being built on the edge of Auckland, containing houses that will receive a population larger than that of Invercargill, will not be inhabited by disappointed farmers. Nor can it be said that the rapid development of the Hutt valley has anything to do with rural interests. If people preferred above all else to live in attractive surroundings, in fertile and productive regions, there would be no population problem in the South Island. There is no need of irrigation schemes (valuable though they may be to the areas concerned) to make the southern provinces desirable. It is not necessary in Invercargill to spend hours daily in trams, buses and trains that carry the workers from outer suburbs to their employment in the city. Although there is a shortage of houses, they can still be purchased. Life has fewof the additional tensions that afflict the nerves of city dwellers. Thousands of people, now in Auckland and Wellington, are living in conditions of acute discomfort. Yet if they were invited to migrate to a green district of the south, enriched by a new system of irrigation, they would ask at once what jobs awaited them there. If they were told that good land was ready for settlement, and that ample State assistance could be given them, they would turn again to their crowded streets and congested suburbs. The plain truth is that New Zealand, a country which depends on pastoral and agricultural industries for the greater part of its wealth, has reached a degree of urbanization (relative to population) beyond that of the United States. There is a drift, not merely from the south, but also from the land. It has been noticeable for years, and although it may be checked briefly by returned servicemen who have no desire to leave an open air life, it seems unlikely to bring any lasting reaction.