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Changes within the Urban District of Greater Wellington The consequences of population movements within the much smaller compass of one urban area may be illustrated in Greater Wellington. This area, which includes Wellington and Lower Hutt Cities, the Boroughs of Upper Hutt, Petone, and Eastbourne, the Town District of Johnsonville, and the " vicinity " areas of Hutt and Makara Counties is considered for this purpose as one urban unit. Its population was 150,000 in 1936, 173,500 in 1945, and 193,300 in April, 1950. The number of people in the area increased by 16 per cent, in the nine-and-a-half-year period from the 1936 census to the 1945 census, and by another 13 per cent, during the four and a half years from 1945 to 1950. The comparative figures for the whole Dominion in the same two periods were 8 per cent, and 12 per cent, respectively. When schools have to be provided for such a large urban unit it is not sufficient merely to consider increases in the total population. In Greater Wellington a further complication is added by the fact that a marked redistribution of the total number of school-children has taken place among the different residential districts during the last fifteen years. To illustrate this development, the Greater Wellington urban area has been divided into five regions, which are designated respectively, Central-Southern, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Hutt and Eastern Bays. Within each region there are several public primary schools, and the figures which follow show the totals of the rolls of those schools at the beginning of the third term for each of the years 1939, 1944, 1949, and 1954. The 1954 figures are projected for each of the different regions in accordance with the trend in each region during the years 1939 to 1949. Table IX—Public Primary-school Enrolments in Greater Wellington by Regions Region. 1939. 1944. 1949. 1954. Central-Southern .. .. .. 3,624 2,945 2,697 2,225 Eastern .. .. .. .. 2,777 ' 2,712 3,063 3,475 Western .. .. •• .. 3,272 2,868 3,110 3,425 Northern .. .. .. .. 1,698 1,981 2,572 3,275 Hutt and Eastern Bays .. .. .. 5,677 6,207 9,246 12,600 Greater Wellington .. .. .. 17,048 16,713 20,688 25,000 In the following table these figures are converted to index numbers (1939 = 100) to show more clearly the trends in the different regions. Table X—lndex Numbers for Public Primary-school Enrolments in Greater Wellington (1939 = 100) Region. 1939. 1944. 1949. 1954. Central-Southern .. .. .. 100 81-3 74-4 61 Eastern .. .. •• •• 100 97-7 110-3 125 Western .. .. .. •• 100 87-6 95-1 105 Northern .. .. .. ..100 116-7 151-5 193 Hutt and Eastern Bays .. .. .. 100 109-3 162-9 222 Greater Wellington .. .. .. 100 98 121-3 147 While the total school population of Greater Wellington is expected to be 47 per cent, higher in 1954 than in 1939, the regional changes vary from a decline of 39 per cent, for the Central-Southern region to increases of 93 per cent, and 122 per cent, respectively in the Northern and Hutt regions. It is not necessary to stress the fact that these regional variations cause special difficulties because surplus class-rooms in Wellington South are no help in accommodating children who live in the Hutt Valley or the Porirua Basin. Schools must be planned and built as close as possible to the homes of the children.

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