WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1917, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

CENSUS REVELATIONS. THE DRIFT NORTHWARD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, .lan. 15. The figures given in this column on the eve of the census anticipating the disclosure of a very extensive "drift northward" wore so widely quoted at the time that few newspaper readers can haee been greatly surprised by the official returns published on Saturday. These show that the increase of population -i.i the North Island during the five and a half years between April 1011' and October 1010, exclusive of men in the military camps, was 7R.R24, and in the South Island 3.129. The increases during the fivq years between April 1000 and April 1011 were 87,057 in the North and .12,832 in the South, but it'has to be remembered that during the two years preceding the last census very large drafts were made upon the male nopulation for military purposes! In a 'dition to the men already sent away there were in October last. 8078 men in camp not included in the above figures, so that the normal increase between the nuinquennial stocktakings since 1001. about 14 per cent seems to have been well maintained.

EFFECT ON PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. When it was announced on Saturday that the population of the North Tsland. as shown by the census, had increased by 78,824 and the population of the Couth Island by only .132!) there were manv =p?eula(ions :is to the effect the "drift northward" would have :ipon the Parliamentary representation of the two islands. T'i" "nneral opinion appeared to he that flu Ynrth would gain at least four seats in flic House and that the. representation of the South would be reduced to thirty members or a minority of sixteen in the elected chamber. But Ihe position is not quite so bad as this from the southern point of view. It is expet ed that by adding the "country quota," which is believed to he about equally distributed between the two is lands, to the actual population of 1.000,<i!7 a nominal population of 1.243,301 will be reached and that this will give an "electoral quota" of about K1..1G0. which would work out at fnrtv-four members for the North Island and thirty-two for the South. THE CONSTITUENCIES, When the figures very closeTy estimat|'"g the extent of the drift northward ; were published it was predicted thai j' '■•fha and Motueka would be jlu> two 1 tituencips to be extinguished. Thi;, {> curse, was a pure speculation, lest- '« such data as could he obtained ji ' (he figures of the last general *• 'r.n, but nothing has transpired since. • t -ike it less probable than it ap- \ 1 to be then. In the North island, !'iing Ihat the number or namea on ■ ' lectornl roll represented ofi per cent, Hie people, residing in the electo,v.>e ft "ficnlly every constituency showed '•i. increase in population. The oxtep- ' ; nns were one or two constituencies in h> Taranaki and Wellington rural districts, the total decrease reaching no "lore than 3016. In the South Island, '■owever, there were large decreases, th? •uost notable being on the West Coast, ■i North Canterbury, in-the Oiago rural ! ; slricts and in Southland, the total n mounting to 11.023. Taking the figures as a whola and having regard to the methods the Representation Commissioners had followed on previous occasions ;t seemed likely that Clutha, where there was apparently a large decline in population, would be pushed out by the declines in the adjoining districts and that ( Motueka, suffering in. the same way, ■voitld experience the same fate.

~~ WHAT IT ALTj MEANS. At the census in 1801 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 t'nd the Smith forty. It was not till fourteen years later that the method ol representation was definitely placed upon a population basis and since then flip North has gradually crept ahead. The explanation is, of course, that its development had been largely retarded by the Maori wars and then by the difficulties of communication and tint when ; ts wide expanse of good country at ast became accessible it attracted not nly people from over seas, but also •iany people from the older settled districts in the South. It does, not mean that the South is less fertile or less agreeable as a place of residence—on these points there always will be differences of opinion—but it means that during the last ten or fifteen years the North has presented wide opportunities to the investor and the home seeker and that the barrier of parochialism and prejudice that once separated the islands had been demolished. THE OTAGO MEDICAL SCHOOL. The students in training at the Otago Medical School are to spend some days at Awapuni Camp shortly, for Hie purpose of bcoming acquainted with tiio training given to the ambulance drafts for the New Zealand Forces and the hospital ships. These students are '.iot permitted to enlist in the FApciliionary Forces, since the Defence and Public Health authorities are strongly of opinion that the supply of doctors .diould be conserved and extended by all available means in view of the heavy war losses and the reduced attendnnce at medical "schools in tliu united Kingdom and elsewhere during the war period. Speaking to a reporter to-day, Sur-geon-General Henderson, Director of Mtdical Services, who returned on Sunday from a visit to the South, emrhasieed the importance of the vork being done at the Otago Medical School. He said that the standard of training was very high, even in comparison t.'ith the courses given in the medical schools of the Old Country, and it was most desirable tiiat all the student., ,iow in attendance should complete their coarse rnd take their diplomas. The v, : ai had entailed a serious drain upon the medical profession and it had had the further effect of checking the training of medical students in the United Kingdom, where some of the classes had been reduced almost to vanishing point. Tim result would be felt inv years to come, when young doctors would not be available in normal numbers, and New Zealand probably would be dependant, upon its own output of medical men, since there would be no surplus in Britain.