GROWTH OF NORTH ISLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1921, Page 5

GROWTH OF NORTH ISLAND.

CENSUS ILLUSTRATES EXPANSION. COMPARISON WITH SOUTH ISLAND. By Telegraph—Press Association Wellington, Last Night. Further details of the growth of population in t.he North Island are given in a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs from the Gm eminent Statistician. In one section of his return the Statistician groups certain homogenous counties, including interior boroughs and town districts, for the purpose of comparison with the census taken in 1916, and the group showing the largest percentage of increase is Bay of Plenty, including Tauranga, Whakatane and Opotiki, in which the population has risen by 5764, or 36 per cent. Waikato, including Franklin, Raglan, Waipa, Waikato West, Taupo (half), and Matamata, is next with an increase of 12,522, or 27 per cent. The Auckland area, including Waitemata, Etjen, Manukau, and Great Barrier, has a population of 175,717, against 147,508 in 1916, an increase of 29j209, or 20 per cent. All the North Island groups, except the East Coast, show a percentage increase in all but three cases of double figures, but in the South Island only two areas show a percentage increase of double figures, while there are three districts—the West Coast, Central Otago, and Chatham Island—which show decreases.