NEW ZEALAND'S MILLION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 437, 20 February 1909, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND'S MILLION.

Those ' 'who' "remember th 6 interest 1 amid which« ; Jfew. 'South'-; Wales ,-iieaied : and:the;.million .mark ■ will (says., .the 'Sydney. . '.'Daily Telegraph") appreciate .'what : same; experience' means';, to New. Zealand,' whose population, including Maoris,''has just been estimated at 1,003,373. For not mere Hiking forjgood round figures or gratifioation; at ; the achievement of some self-set task explains the elation that such an event,., excites. '■ As. woll—and: of course ■ more'' importantly—the ■ new'"figures 1 are i ''hdiled : bfeoauße ! in a taoit way. thejr indicate''the young'coun•'try's coming of ago, its arrival among the Pleading- members'' of the ' colonial ;" family:~ Yet ; it. has taken. New. Zealandi about .:a-cenA tury ,to obtain a million'people. .It' is'truethat, the first systematic , attempt' at colonisation was, ;not mado . until : 1825,"- when ' a company .was formed; in .London to settle 'Bome land in, the Far' Nortbj'.but.'the.oouiitry was known, and white Governments wero ■in: touch' with it .'long' before, then;', sd .that ;it : is, roundly a; fair, statement that it has taken 100 years to get .a million'.people, to.a.land; of exceptional fertility,; well watered,. highly productive, and rich' in 'all . the guarantees, of health -and prosperity;. that 'any : good'' hew country; can" offer,, to robust. ;and 'industrious settlers. Wo do not suggest that New Zealand' is" peculiar ' in : this. On the 1 contrary, there, as in so much of,the,.rest ,of:,her ■national-'progress, she is' representative :'and factually; has. done better .than' some of her . Australian neighbours.; But .that. it .is . pretty much the isame! all round does not,'make the actuality'any -bfighter, : hut, rather the reverse., If only; New'.. Zealand had failed to; attract, the.i. population ■ it 1 should; possess, while we might: deplore the fact we could find solace in the greater - good fortune of Australia^But no- Australian- State is on any pinnacle of superiority' from which : , ; .t can; decently' offer compassion to another. New Zealand has bow doubled her population in about 23 years,, it has taken rather longer, to do the same thing in Australia, and be-' twoon 'all Australia's vast ■ rich spaciousness and New Zealand's.. wonderfulconoentration, of human opportunities—they have! less than six millions of people! The fact is anything but, a oomfortablo one to \think of, but it is. necessary to cdte it as a reminder of the work that haß to bo done— perhaps we .should say begun—in peopling this 'country,, if only' for its saifety.s sake. ..We'haye a too-low birth-rate, and the immigration'is exasperatingly slow by, oomparisbn with . what, apparently ■ ought' to be; its pace looking at the, thousands of emigrants who -leave Great: Britain, and the Continent every, week." ■ The.increase of. the' population, therefore, , is ■ anything . but reassuring • to those who take heed .. of. Australia's relation, and New.;. Zealand's, to, the East; and it will remain! so,; causing a real' and great danger to bang like a clcud over our national future, unless ways can be devised'of bringing immigrants .in at.the;rate of.about a hundred for every one that comes in now.