DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23972, 12 June 1943, Page 4

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION

TRANSFERENCE FROM NORTH SUGGESTED From Our Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, June 11. The transference of some of the population from the North Island to the South Island was advocated by Mr C. Morgan Williams (Government, Kaiapoi) in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives to-day. He said that the worker on any given wage was better off in Christchurch than in Wellington. In Christchurch he could always get eggs— Voices: What about honey? Mr Williams; Why bring that up? He went on to say that rents were much lower in Christchurch, where there was plenty of building land. Mr W. J. Poison (Opposition, Stratford): You would go broke if we didn’t buy your wheat. Mr Williams: If they were in the South Island they would still have to eat it. and it would cost less to get it to them.

Mr Williams said that he would like some Government departments decentralised. The South Island could feed and clothe workers. The North Island could not grow grass without phosphates, but the South Island needed very little top-dressing. In a chorus of interjections about the reason for the drift of the population to the North Island, a member suggested that it was the climate. Mr Williams: Our climate is colder, but it produces sturdy children. We have colonised the North Island. We don’t propose at present to issue a declaration of independence. The North Island would be in a very bad way It couldn’t feed itself.

Seriously, said Mr Williams, the acute shortage of electricity in the North Island showed that the population was badly distributed.