NEED FOR GREATER POPULATION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 15, 13 October 1943, Page 4

NEED FOR GREATER POPULATION

Manufacturer’s View INFLUENCE ON SOCIAL SECURITY Dominion Special Service. NAPIER, October 12. “There is one argument which should be rammed home to all the young people of this country who are enjoying the benefits of social security,” said tlie president of tlie New Zea laud Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr. C. V. Smith, in an address at the manufacturers’ conference today. “If something is not done to increase rapidly the population of this country the young people of today will get a shock when t'hey come to retire.” Unless that rapid increa.se came about, he said, either the promised benefits would not be paid or those who had to find the money would have to pay a great deal more than the people were paying today. In other words, the very existence of social security depended upon an increased population so that the present adverse trend might be corrected. “How long can we live in a fool’s paradise? Is it fair that we should? Can our delegates at a world peace conference sit with an easy conscience and discuss European and Asiatic problems, many of which arise from these overcrowded nations? Have we any right to assume that Britain will always be ready to defend us from attack?” These were questions asked by Mr. Smith, who suggested that the lastmentioned argument could not .be ignored, though it was not an immediate one: Populations Contrasted. He had pointed to the fact that when the important question of rehabilitation had been dealt with “we must stiff look ahead and ask ourselves whether we can afford to continue with our present very slow natural increase in population, la this country, only slightly smaller in area than England, Scotland, and Ireland, there was a population of a little over 1,500,000, as against the 46.000,000 in tlie countries he mimed. Japan, only two and a half times the size, had a population of 97,000,000. “I am not* going into tlie reasons for our small birth-rate, nor am I going to discuss the possible inducements that may lie offered to increase it,” said Mr, Smith. “Everyone ,is agreed that the best colonist is the native-born colonist (though there are exceptions). If we can’ not get the native-born colonist, and it is obvious that we cannot get him in time, then I suggest that we set about selecting the type that we want and work toward adopting a scheme that will absorb them.

“Political parties are very reticent about immigration, possibly through the fear that large-scale immigration will lower wage-levels. Haphazard immigration certainly would, but if a definite policy of industrial expansion was adopted we could create the work and absorb immigrants without reducing our standard of living. Again, I would repeat that men and women working in factories create wealth and are consumers of our own products. If we could visualize what another million of population would mean to this country there would be no need to spread the gospel of increased population.”