POPULATION NORMAL

Taranaki Daily News, 17 March 1931, Page 11

POPULATION NORMAL

POSITION AT HASTINGS.

ANALYSIS OF FIGURES.

Hastings, March 15. An analysis of figures compiled by the registration office at Hastings shows that the population of the town has now reached almost normal size, and the registration officer, Mr. S. .Averill, expresses the opinion that residents of the borough and of its immediate environs are now almost entirely back in their homes. , The figures supplied by the_ office show that 12,552 Europeans and 518 Maoris, making a total of 13,070, have been registered as residents of what may be termed the urban area as defined for census purposes. The normal population of that area is a little more than 14,000. Of the total of 13,070 quoted, 8000 odd are European adults and about 4000 European children. Of the Maoris, 233 are- shown as adults and 285 as children, but it is pointed out. that the Maori adults are men registered for labour .engagement purposes, and the figures include no women. . The authorities find it difficult to estimate with any degree of accuracy the number of people who left as refugees, Many left the district for only'a day or two, and in many other instances men at once returned after taking their wives and children to safer parts. It may bi definitely said that male residents with any interest in the town universally stayed, and it. is pointed out also that women, wherever circumstances could' possibly allow, stayed with their husbands and families. It was for the most part only women with young children who left Hastings. ■■/