DID YOU KNOW?

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4187, 18 September 1939, Page 5

DID YOU KNOW?

THERE’S A POCKET COMPENDIUM. DOMINION STATISTICS UP-TO-DATE. A very informative pocket compendium of New Zealand statistics has just been issued by the Government Statistician, Mr J. W. Butcher, and he has crowded a mass of facts and figures into the publieiation. “Enquire Within,” and “Did You Know’’ would be appropriate sub-titles to this wonderful book of knowledge. BRIEF EXTRACTS. There were 160,400 motor vehicles licensed in 1927-28, while in 1938-39 the total was 307,900. . . The amount on deposit in the posoffice savings bank in 1925-26 was £54,280,000, while last year the total was £74,580,000. New Zealand proper has an area ot 103,415 square miles and outlying islands and annexed islands bring the total to 1'03,934 square miles. South Island (and adjacent islets, but not including Stewart Island, 670 square miles), comprises 58,092 square miles, which is 13,811 square miles larger than the North Island with adjacent islets. The Dominion's population at April Ist, 1939, was computed at 1,624,714, of whom 88,450 were Maoris. New Zealand’s population in 18al (including Maoris) was 26,707; in 1871 it had grown to 254,928, in 1891 to 624,474, while in 1911 it exceeded the million mark, with 1,005,589. In 1926 it was 1,344,469, and ten years later 1,491,484. Auckland provnice, with 25,400 square miles, has an estimated population of 575,364, which is more than the three other North Island provinces put together, and also more than the whole of the South Island, 59,130 square miles, with a population of 560,650.

The urban population, according to the census of 1936, comprises 56.68 per cent., a,nd the rural population 43.02 per cent. The .balance is made up of migrants. Auckland’s urban area is estimated at 221,500, that of Wellington 157.900, Christchurch 135,400, and Dunedin 82,800. Then come Invercargill 26,500, Wanganui 26,100, Palmerston North 25,300, Hamilton 20,800, Napier 19,400, New Plymouth 19,300, Timaru 19,300, Hastings 18,900, Gisborne 16,300, and Nelson 14.000. , There were fewer members and adherents of the Methodist Church in 1936 than in 1926, according to the census figures. The same can be said of the Salvation Army, Spiritualists, Confucians, and Unitarians. The Methodist figures are: 1926, 121,212; 1936, 121.012. In the ten-year period 1926-1936 adherents of the Church of England increased from 553,993 to 600,786, Presbyterian from 330,731 to 367,855, Roman Catholic (inccluding Catholic undefined) from 173,364 to 195,261, and Baptists from 21,955 to 24,703. In all religious professions the greatest percentage increase was that of the British Israelites, for in- 1926 the total was only four, whereas a decade later the total was 704. In 1896 the number of persons engaged in primary production was 106,000; in 1936 the number was 175,000—out of a total of 647,000 actively engaged. Primary production accounts for 28.4 of that total, industrial 25.5, Commerce and finance 16.2, public administration and professional 10.5, transport and communication 10.1, and personal and domestic service 9.3. The 1936 census shows that 5,603 males and 80 females were engaged in agricultural farming. 33,645 males and 711 females in sheep farming, 71,480 males and 3,529 females in dairy farming, 15,963 males and 525 females in mixed farming. The total engaged in the agricultural and pastoral industry is 144,456 males and 6,357 females. The 1936 census shows that 94.3 per cent, of the Dominion’s populat-

ion are Europeans, 5.2 per cent. Maoris, and 0.5 per cent, race aliens. New Zealand is the (birthplace of 80.3 per cent., oth,er British countries 18.5 per cent; and foreign countries 1.0 per cent.

There were, in 1936, 311,767 ordinary private houses in the Dominion, 1449 hotels, 3597 boarding-houses, 482 hospitals, 12 ; 923 flats, 15,222 baches, 2239 combined shop-dwellings and 224 mobile residences.