THE CENSUS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1640, 21 November 1916, Page 2

THE CENSUS.

A LLXLh'AL survey of the census results sJiuws that i lie Dominion's while population is 1,100,000. 11 lo litis is added the men on sorviee the lolul is 1,1/30,0(01, mi increase of 141,000 over the Inures of the 1011 census. This is the Inrgest iuerease in I he Dominion's hislmy. The next largest was A hat between 1000 and 1011, roughly 120,000; the, next that hctwimn 1871 ami 1878 , 11,%000. The percentage of iuerease in the period 1001 to 1900 was 14.0,0, and that in the period between 1000 of 1011 was 13.40. The percentage lids time is 13.8, so the increase is very even. Two factors, however, interfere with an accurate comparison between this and previous censuses. The time between this and Ido last census was more than the nstutl live-year period, and the mortality i n that period was abnormally digit owing to the war. Our population Is now WO II over the million mark, but as the Auckland Stay remarks, it must strike thoughtful people afresh that it is very small dor the size and possibilities of the eouutry. If, strictly speaking, wc ;i re not open to the taunt that we dnve only the population of a London suburb, it is true that our popuddion is less than one-sixth of that °i’ Greater Loudon. As was andddpnted, the returns show that the J °rth Island is going ahead faster ddun the /South. Indeed, the Minis-

ter Jin)many <lisi in Iho konlh Island show aetua] decreases. Those decreases jiro hugely to ho accountod I ()1 ' hy the drill of population to Hie North, where II loro are more attraction,- iti land settlement ;ind in business. Probably Iho ligures lor the South Island will load to uioro agitation lor I lie on! fins' up of big 1 estates there, so as !o ohook tho northward (low of young men in soaroh of land. No donbl the reason why Southland shows an increase while Otago does not, is to lie found in the arid interior of Otago. When irrigation is developed in Central Otago the population of tin* province may begin to rise again. Dunedin rellects the conditions of Otago in its increase of 80. Wellington city and suburbs show an increase of 12,017, as compared with 17,01)2 in Auckland. The Wellington figures, however, have been slightly swelled by the number of people who have gone there in be near the training camps. Doth dues, of course, have sall'ered in population through enlistments for the Expeditionary forces. The iignr.Ts for Christchurch have not. yet h/cen announced. It is curious that (there should In* a probability of so /progressive a district as Tara•ml!d showing a decrease, in compa§iy with the West. Coast of the .Sfuid.i Island, of which one hardly e A: peels otherwise. |