Wide range of statistics in Handbook

First line trenches at Verdun completely levelled by high explosive shells from the German...
First line trenches at Verdun completely levelled by high explosive shells from the German batteries: ground south of Caurettes Wood made untenable and evacuated after a stand by the French infantry. — Otago Witness, 9.8.1916.
Every page of statistics in the Municipal Handbook, which we have just received, tells its own story for those who take the trouble to put the flesh of imagination on the so-called "dry bones" of figures.

Take, for example, the table showing for the boroughs throughout New Zealand the area, estimated population, dwellings, ratepayers, and rateable properties.

Here are the populations (with ratepayers in parentheses) for various cities and towns: — Auckland (city proper), 65,005 (15,500 ratepayers); Wellington (city proper), 67,446 (8300); Christchurch (city proper), 58,169 (11,160); Dunedin (city proper), 49,446 (8140). 

The proportions of ratepayers to population are; approximately: Auckland, 24 per cent; Wellington, 12 per cent; Christchurch, 19 per cent; Dunedin, 16 per cent.

The first impression of an average reader is that the line "Every man his own landlord" applied more to Auckland than to any of the sister cities, and that opinion may be strengthened by the following figures: Auckland-dwellings 14,703, ratepayers 15,500; Wellington-dwellings 13,650, ratepayers 8300; Christchurch-dwellings 13,488, ratepayers 11,160; Dunedin-dwellings 11,058, ratepayers 8140.

A stock explanation is that Wellington has the largest proportion of temporary or migratory population.

A close examination of the whole set of figures for all the towns and boroughs shows that it is not safe to deduce relative degrees of prosperity from the proportion of ratepayers to population.

For example, there is Kumara, with the following figures: Population 685, dwellings 815, ratepayers 709.

These figures make sad reading for those who remember the Kumara of the olden, golden days.

Generally speaking, the home-owning habit is seen to be much more firmly established in the rural boroughs than in the larger centres of population.

• Port Stanley: Sir Ernest Shackleton has returned after his third fruitless attempt to rescue the marooned men on Elephant Island.

His vessel was forced back by heavy gales, while the ice conditions rendered an approach to the island impossible.

Pack ice was encountered north of the island, which it was impossible to break.

The ship was badly damaged, and the engines injured, so that she had to proceed under sail.

Sir E. Shackleton recognises that it is no use to attempt to force the ice with a light ship, and he is awaiting the arrival of the Discovery, which is being sent from England.

In their generous provision of comforts for soldiers in the training camp at Bendigo, Victoria, the local residents, as a matter of elementary necessity, ensured the issue to each soldier of a hot pie and a cup of coffee for supper.

Bendigo is one of those mining communities in Australia where the habit of taking a pie and coffee at night is locally almost as fixed and extensive as that of having eggs and bacon for breakfast, and is, in any event, deemed to be a needed completion of the day’s nourishment.

But the military camp authorities say that they cannot get the men properly fit and hard if they indulge in a fourth meal at bedtime in addition to the three sufficient meals provided earlier.

Consequently the order has gone out that there must be no more pies and coffee at night.

One needs to have lived at Bendigo to understand how the good folks there regard this order as an appalling deprivation for the brave men who have volunteered to fight for us.

They have been down to Melbourne to see the Minister of Defence about it, but the Minister has replied that it is purely a matter of local camp administration.  — ODT, 7.8.1916.

 

• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ

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