LOCAL CENSUS RETURNS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2271, 3 May 1921, Page 3

LOCAL CENSUS RETURNS

’’OXTON POPULATION SHOWS A DECREASE OF 84.

We were given the local census return.' bv the chief enumerator yesterday. The population of the borough totals 1,668 (males 867, females 821). The census figures for 1916 totalled 1,772. or 84 in excess of the 1921 figures.. The return states that there are 25 empty houses in the borough. The decrease in population is easily accounted for by the temporary closing of the llaxmills, which compelled a large number of employees and several families to remove to other parts. Had it not been for this fact the returns would undoubtedly have shown a slight increase over the figures for 1916. The water and drainage works absorbed a .number of men thrown out of employment by the closing of the mills, otherwise the count would have shown a further decrease. The population of Foxton, like all industrial centres, fluctuates in accordance with the progress or depression of the hemp industry. The slight drop in borough population is not an indication of a'serious set back. With the re-opening of the mills at an early dale the ’population will again advance. So far as empty houses are concerned, the owners of several of these prefer to sell rather than let them. Several of the other empty houses represented are shacks that should he condemned as unfit for human habitation. The population of the Rongotea Town Board is returned as 295 (138 males and 157 females).