DRIFT TO CITIES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6978, 15 October 1948, Page 4

DRIFT TO CITIES

Sir, —>A letter published in your issue of 6 inst. and signed by Settler opens up one of the greatest problems concerning the drift to the cities which is causing our city fathers a headache with need of providing transit houses, etc. Our increasing population must have homes but why this stupid system of concentration that is being adopted in this atomic age. Why one bomb would wipe Auckland out of existance. A policy of more decentralisation is a possibly solution. If the vacant spaces of this beautiful country are to be ever made to produce an abundance of food and primary products very much more lenient treatment than meted out in Settler’s case will have to be adopted. We have reached a stage in our history in which our bulk of population is now living in the towns and cities with almost every secondary industry being subsidised. I feel sure that were this position reversed a better understanding would exist between town and country. Thousands of acres from Kawhia to East Taupo are carrying only onertwentieth of the population they can support so why -penalise back-block settlers.—l am, etc., PIONEER.