PUBS AND POPULATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1742, 31 July 1917, Page 2

PUBS AND POPULATION.

A RETURN compiled by the Government Statistician shows that at the end of the 1016 financial year the total number of publicans’ licences in the Dominion was 1,198, and that the capital value of the licensed houses was £2,285,108. Of the licensed houses 598, capital value £1,404,734, were in boroughs and cities, 557, of a capital value of £709,365, were situated in counties, and the balance, 43, capital value £111,009, were in town districts. The average number of persons to each licensed house throughout the Dominion was 920. Of the cities and boroughs, omitting, of course, the “dry” districts, Devonpoi't has the largest number of residents to each public house, there being 3,932 persons to each licensed house. Next comes Takapuna, with a population of 3,023 to each hotel, and then New Brighton, where the population is 2,158, and where there is only one hotel. Of the four cities, Auckland has 56 hotels, representing one for every 1,229 people in the city; Wellington has 47 v being one for each 1,430 persons; Christchurch has 40 hotels, representing one for every 1,285 residents, and Dunedin, with 39 licensed houses, has one for every 1,477 of that city’s population. Palmerston North has one liereused house for every 814 persons, Wanganui one for every 997, Napier one for every 815, Timaru one for every 1,013, Gisborne one for every 1,262, Hastings one for every 1,182, New Plymouth one for every 935, Lyttelton one for every 550, Onehuga one for every 986, Dannevirke one for every 737, Ilawera one for every 467, Levin and Podding one for every 895, Marlon one for every 564, Pa tea one for every 639, Pahiatua one for every 334, and Woodville one for every 255. On the West Coast of the South Island hotels arc more plentiful in proportion 16 the population than in any other part of New Zealand. In Kumara there are no less than ten hotels,. being one for every 68 persons; Ross lias .one for every 82 personsj-llokitika one for.every 131, Brunner one for every 147, Greymonlh one for every 267, and Westport one for every 324 residents. In the southern part of (ho South Island the number of residents to each hotel is smaller than the average, Naseby boasting of a licensed house tor each SO of its residents, Queenstown one for every 178, Riverton one for every 177, Arrowtown quo for every 137, and Roxborough one for every 120, Of the North Island towns, Thames, with 16 hotels, and Woodville with live, share honours as having a licensed house to a loss number of people than any oilier borough in the Island, their population to each hotel being 255. Foxton has a licensed house for every 463 persons. The capital value of the hotels in Foxton is set down at £10,331.