10 MILLION PEOPLE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 20, 16 October 1937, Page 6

10 MILLION PEOPLE

New Zealand's Population Needs SIR A. RANSOM'S VIEWS ' * ' Buildings, xo&ds and other f&cilities: jttrs bsea eonatrncted in New Zealand! for « population of 10,000,000, and mu ihe mark he thought they shouldj tam at, said Sir Alfred Eansom, MJP.,' k , mu address to ihe Dannevirke' Rofc&ry Club. Unfortnnately at the present time {he population, he said, was practically itationaiy although faoed with. an ever ptereaaing expenditure. In 1927 the population of Nevr Zealand was 1,427,166 and the expenditure from taxation £16,899,556, while in 1937 a population $f 1,578,757 was faced with an expenditure of £31,105,809. The burden of £axation that was being placed on the beople was out of all proportion to the Ijrowth of population, bnt the problem could be overcome if the proper steps Jsrere taken. New Zealand was one of jthe finest countries in the world and trould attract population if the xight #ncourageni6nt were given. u The problem of increasing the population. was not only a Dominion prob? or an Empire problem, but a world joroblem. Some countries had already fiiscovered a way of overcoming it. In fcew Zealand they had to consider the Jpositioa in xegard to balance of populaHon with national expenditure, both by Ihe present and past Governments. As jtn example of the load on the present ineagre population, the Wellington and jAucMand xailway atation and yards uost £5,000,000, to serve 1,500,000 people. This was out of all proportion, Ue. jdid not advocate pntting np with sueh' •tations as had served Wellington int' jthe past, and he was pleased to see the' ferogress that was made in New Zsav land towna with Tegard to the erectio»n' •f new buildings. All this, however,. tndicated that those xesponsible for thei jKcpenditure were expecting the popoia- ' ition to become mueh larger thau it was: kt the present time. 7 In the world to-day white xaces were! eeclitiing in population except in Italy knd Germany. In England and Wai eajthe birthrate in 1920 was 25.5 per 1000, in 1935 it was 14.7 per 1000, conjtederably below the £gur® required to paintain a static population. The loss jsf men by Great Britain in the Gre&t jWar had a direct bearing on population* There were 5,000,000 unmarried iromen in the United Xingdom between jthe ages of 15 and 45, and there were kver 1,000,000 less homes than former■y, Births per ttousand women had ■ropped from 97.5 in 1913 to 59.5 in 1935. Significant figures were 'those of Frmnce and Germauy. In 1870 France's population was 38,000,000, and Gerjmany's 17,000,000, In 1914 France's population was 40,000,000 and Gerk&ny's 65,000,000. Gexmany had in•reased her population by 28,000,000 in Ihat time, while France, leading the jrorld in the limitation of the birth fate, had only increased by 2,000,000. to-day in the British Empire there was p population of 480,000,000, of which 12,000,000 were whites and 64,000,002 jlnglo-Saxon. Gennany had a population of 66,000,000. Figures of assisted Snanigration to New Zealand were, two years up to 1926, 10,766; up to 1928, 8220; up to 1930, 1405; np to 1932, 489; *p t« 1934, 1. This showed that the immigration policy had been completely iropped by New Zealand. In 1936 there orere in New Zealand 23,965 live hirths, an average of 16 per 100, whereas on the 1916 rate there should have been 39,000 births — 15,000 more than occur* red. Thought there was 500,000 more population than in 1916 there had been 1554 fewer births in 1936. Another factor was the ageing of the population through medical and hygenic advanees. . Ihe number aged below 10 years was 16,000 less in 1936 than in 1926, while Ihere were 40,000 more persons over 60 years. Active steps were being taken in Germany and Italy to increase population. In Italy reclamations of 10,000,600 acres had been made up to 1934. Bimilar work had been carried on in Germany, and the establishment of women's clinics had been carried out pa a large scale, In the last 10 years New Zealand had doubted its dairy production, and they had found satisfactory markets for aV that had been produced. From his experience as Minister of Lands he was ' jatisfied that the outpnt could be again ioubled in the next 10 years, and they could atill find markets for what wa3 produced. Such an increase in production could be brought about by assistance of new settlers, particularly young men, either immigrants or New Zea-land-born." He advocated a Govprntoent endownment scheme of financia! mssistance to enable sucb men to establish themselves on holdings, stock them and build their homes. When a man married, a certain amount should be written o S from his debt and _• addi* tional amounts written ofE for oach child born. This would provide some encouragement to men to settle on the land. Assistance could also be granted jwhere fathers had sufficient land to establish their sons as fanners, but lacked the capital to build the necessary homes, etc. He also supported the nssisting of approved immigrants, both from Great Britain and Northern Europe. The Dannevirke district had originally been settled by Danes, and all .knew the value of the Dominion 'a •Scandinavian settlers. Heeondary in* dastries would be encouraged, for "with •A larger rural population their working would become more ecoiiomical. At tlie isame time with a population of 10,000.KK10 the Bominion would consume rnoro M her own. primary products. Apaxts from the finaneial aspeet the? Ihad to consider the serions position they would be placed in if they did not; •fmlly populate their country, and if the Australians did not fully populate their icountryj said the speaker in couclusion. jlt was only reasonable that those eounjtries which. were increasing their own [population would ultimately artrive to «0^..thi^y.p4pp^.t^citgr& ^ i