ABSTRACT
This chapter charts the salient features of this redistribution since 1951, based on census and electoral roll data; both are unsatisfactory sources, but there are none better available. Since 1896, the Maori population has been increasing again, at a spectacular rate since 1926. The later years of this period of demographic rejuvenation have also produced a large-scale redistribution of the Maori, mainly towards a few urban centres: the time lag was undoubtedly a product of the crippling economic depression of the 1930s. The general pattern is clearly a growing concentration of the net migration of Maoris towards a few places. Net Maori migration has clearly been dominated by outflows from the rural areas of the northern, central and eastern parts of the North Island, with compensating inflows to the main urban centres. Over time, these inflows have become more concentrated on a few large and expanding places.
