The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1886. THE LOCAL CENSUS RETURNS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2289, 7 May 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1886. THE LOCAL CENSUS RETURNS.

The result of tho Wairarapa census which wo published in our last issue must have been gratifying to our readers in all parts of the district, Of course, in the southern division no very marked increase of population was anticipated, and it is satisfactory to .find that thern has been Bteady progress during the last five years. Tho now settlement in the northern division of the district was expected, te give. our census a big lift, and the result has not disappointed us. Since the previous censuß in 1881, the population of the Wairarapa has increased from 10,607, to 13,949, showing an advance of thirty per cent. In Wairarapa North the number lias sprung from 6142 in 1881, to 7768 in 1886, giving the handsome profit of fifty per cent. In Wairarapa South a gain of eleven per cent is recorded, the total having risen from 5411 to 6081. It is not easy to make an exact comparison between the County returns of the present and former census, because in the interim there has been alteration of boundaries which makes a little adjustment necessary, but we believe the comparative estimate which ve have given is reliable. Of course' this objection does not apply to the town returns where there have been no changes in boundaries. In' Masterton the population has sprung up from 2,241 in 1881, to 3,160 in tho present year, yielding an advance of forty per cent. We aro pleased that there are now more than three thousand people .in Masterton, and still more gratified to observe thiit the increa e in the country districts around Masterton has been even greater than the growth of the town. We do not like to see a town expand faster than the country districts which feed it, and we hail, therefore, the assurance which the census affords that Masterton is not as contrasted with its surroundings, at all overgrown 1 The pioneer township of the Wairarapa, " Greytown," has not gone back during the past five years, and it is a real pleasure to us to find that, on the contrary, it has more than held its own, having increased from 1078 to 1106. Featherston has jumped up from 485 to 614, a big rise of twenty-six per cent. In Carterton there has bpen steady progress, the town population having risen from 660 in 1881 to 758 in 1886. The Carterton population cannot, however, be estimated fairly by the Town Board returns, as there are a greater nuoi'

bev of people living on. the .borders of the narrow area which is included in the Board .letnm than there nre within them. All parts of the district may be fairly satisfied with the census returns, as the past fiva years have not, taken as a whole, been years of fatness. The term commenced immediately after a severe depression, and the shadows of the revorses still hang over us. During lean years we have made steady and substantial progress, and we can look forward with confidence to a rapid growth in the future,