WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 16 January 1917, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

CENS fS KEVE RATIONS. THE DRIFT NORTHWARD. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Jan. 15. The Figures given in this column on the eve of the census anticipating the disclosure of a very extensive “drift northward” were so widely quoted at the time that few newspaper readers can have been greatly surprised at the official returns published on Saturday. These show that the increase of population in the North Island during the five and a half years between April Ifill and October 1910, exclusive of men in the military camps, was 78,824, and in the South Island 3329. The increases in the five years between April 1906 and 'April 1911 were 87.057 in the North Island and 32,832 in the South, but it has to be remembered that during the last two years very large drafts were made upon the male population for military purposes. In addition to the men already sent away there were in October last 8678 men in camp not included in the above figures, so that the normal increase between the quinquennial stocktakings since 1901, about 14 per cent., scents to be well maintained. EFFECT ON PARLIAMENTARY RE PRESENTATION. When it was announced on Saturday that the population of the North Island, as shoo it by the census, had increased by 78,824 and the population of the South Island by only 3329 there were many speculations as to the effect the “drift northward” would have upon Parliamentary (representation of tjhe two islands. The general opinion appeared to be that the North would gain at least four seats in the House, and that the representation of the South would be reduced to thirty members, or a minority of sixteen in the elected chamber. But the position is not quite so bad as this from the southern point of view. It is expected that by adding the “country quota,” which is believed to be equally distributed between the two islands, to the actual population of 1,090,017, a nominal population of 1,243,201 will be reached, and this will give an electoral quota of about 10,360, which would work out at forty-four members for the North Island and thirty-two for the South. THE CONSTITUENCIES. When the figures very closely estimating the extent of the drift northward were published, it was predicted that the Clutha and Motueka would bo the two constituencies to be extinguished. This, of course was a pure speculation, resting upon such data as could be obtained from the figures of the last general election, but nothing has transpired since to make it appear less probable than it appeared to be then. In the North Island, assuming the number of names on the electoral roll represented 50 per cent, of the people residing in the electorate, practically every constituency showed an increase of •population. The exceptions wore one or two constitucnces in the Wellington and Taranaki rural districts, the total decrease reaching no more than 3916. In the South Island, however, there wore large decreases, the most noticeabl being on the West Coast, in North. Canterbury., in the Otago rural districts and in Southland, the total amounting to 11,023. Taking the figures as a whole, and having regard to the methods the Representation Commissioners had followed on previous occasions it seemed likely that Clutha, where apparently there was a large decline in population, would be pushed out by the declines in the adjoining districts and that Motueka, suffering in the same way, would experience the same fate. WHAT IT ALL MEANS. At the census of 1891 when the population of the North Island was 281, 745, and of the South Island 344,913, the North had thirty members in the House and the South forty. It was not until /fourteen years later fcljtat the method of representation was definitely placed upon a population basis, and since then the North has gradually crept ahead. The explanation is, of course, that its development has been largely retarded first by the Maori Wars and then by the difficulties of communication, and that when at last

its wide expanse of good country became accessible it attracted not only the people from overseas, but also many people from the older settled districts in the Soul h. It does not mean that rite South is less fertile or less agreeable as a [dace of residence —on those points there will always bo differences of opinion—but it means that during the last ten or twelve years the Notrh has presented wide opportunities to the investor and the home seeker, and that the barrier of parochialism and prejudice that once separated the islands has been demolished.