The Te Aroha News Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Mornings. THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1924. ELECTRICITY IN THE COUNTRY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6442, 24 January 1924, Page 4

The Te Aroha News Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Mornings. THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1924. ELECTRICITY IN THE COUNTRY.

THE well-known tendency of population towards the great cities has been examined in detail in respect of New Yoi-k State, where, according to a comparison of the census returns of 1910 and 1920, population declined in 88 per cent, of the area, remained stationary in 6 per cent., and increased in 6 per cent., representing the cities. Writing in the Electrical World, Mr W. M. Carpenter, a New York engineer, suggests that this condition creates an opportunity for electricity supply concerns to serve as benefactors to their country. He says: “Unless we are willing to face the possibilities of the recasting pf our entire industrial structure, it will soon become the obligation of the community to check to the best of its ability the depletion not only of the rural districts, but also of the smaller towns, and to stem in some way the tide,of cityward migration. Rural life must be made as attractive as possible, even if it is made ,at some expense to the urban communities, and this offers to the electric companies a real opportunity, not only as a matter of duty to the people, but also as an actual business proposition. The dearth of help—of the hired man and of the hired girl—which is one of the principal sources of dissatisfaction with farm life, can to a large extent be offset, as it has beeh in the city, by the installation of electrical appliances and by the increased use of electricity. That this has proved to be effective in the villages can be seen from the fact that of the 494 incorporated villages of the State/ 387 are served by electricity and 107 are not. Of those Served 65 per cent, show a gain in inhabitants during the preceding decade, and 35 per cent, a loss, while pf those not so served 86 per cent, report a decrease in population and 14 per cent, a slight increase.”'