NEARLY A MILLION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20508, 9 January 1935, Page 8

NEARLY A MILLION.

Population of North Island Still Grows. (Special to the “ Star.") WELLINGTON, This Dav. Though handicapped by the fact that there has been no census of the Dominion since 1926, the Government Statistician annually essays an estimate of the distribution of population throughout New Zealand, and in the N ear Book just issued figures show that the North Island continues to increase its lead over the South. In ISSB. the North Island had a larger population than the South, but the Maori wars which broke out in 1860 retarded development in the North, and the large area of land reserved for the Maoris -was for many vears a serious hindrance to the settlement of population in the North Island. However, in 1901, the North Island commenced to show a larger total, and todav it is nearly at the million-mark, distribution of population being as follows: North Island 999,328 South Island 549,581 The world-wide tendency to drift to the towns is a point noted by the statistician, who says that this was either non-existent or quiescent in New Zealand up to 1906, but has since rapidb- gathered momentum. Urban and rural communities are not evenly distributed, for the South Island contains p~o*X)rtionately more rural population tha i does the North Island. Of the northern provincial districts, Taranaki is the only one in which rural population predominates. There is a qualifying word about these comparisons, the Government Statistician remarking that the figures given for all the lesser districts are literally estimates. “ Never before,” he adds, “ has a period of more than five years elapsed since a census was taken; and probably never before has such a widespread depression (with its inevitable reaction on population distribution) been experienced in New Zealand. Care has been taken with the resources available, and it is believed that the results are sufficiently near the truth to serve the many administrative, commercial and statistical purposes to which they are put. But, nevertheless, the possibility of occasional serious variations from fact must not be overlooked.”