The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY. APRIL 26. 1928. A WORLD PROBLEM.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 April 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY. APRIL 26. 1928. A WORLD PROBLEM.

Tub question of population and food was brought prominently to notice ro- _ ceiitly in the cable news. ]!ut it is hoped, as a contemporary remarked. ■ that nobody will be seriously alarmed £ by the figures published in London proving that the world’s population is S 3 now increasing with great if not un|j precedented. rapidity. A hundred yearago Malthas, like our statisticians toll day, pointed out that in past ages jj “positive” checks—wars, famines, and I pestilences—had prevented the earth I from being overcrowded. But with | the progress of civilisation these “positive” checks were being eliminated, I and he regarded the rapid increase of | population in all countries as a serious | inpnn-ce, to mankind’s future Iprcrs- | poets. Ihe history of the past coni' fmy, however, proves that while Malii thus over-estimated the natural rate | of increase, lie failed to a very large |j extent to real be tbe immense capacity j ol the earth for sustaining life under I scientific direction. To support this

argument we need consider briefly only two important aspects of the problem. Ibo introduction of cheap and rapid means of transport has brought, all the great centres rf population into dlo-e touch with the most remote regions of the earth, and for the purposes of adjusting the food supply to the demand the world’s productive [lower has thus been vastly inereased. At the same time scientists, hv extending man’s control over Nature, have broken through those limitations to productivity which Malthas and Ricardo re. garded as fixed by the Law of Diminishing Return. Thirty years ago, as Sir Henry Row has pointed out, the experts declared that the world’s capacity for wheat production had reached its limit. Yet to-day. it can safely lie said that not one of the great wheat producing countries has yet utilised nearly all of the land fit for wheat cropping; while four-fifths of the world's .population still depends upon other staple foods. The case of wheat, is, for our purposes, a singularly instructive illustration. When Sir William Crookes, a.s president of the British Association, warned the world tfliat sJvstematie attempts must be made to restore to the earth the elements constantly drawn from it by wheat cropping, Science had hardly begun to consider this great problem seriously. Within ten years from that

date the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen for the purpose of manufacturing artificial fertilisers had been successfully carried out in laboratories. Today the whole world’s needs in this respect could he supplied I'm in the air. anil this is only one step towards the complete utilisation of .Nature's resources lor the extension of our food supplies. Sweeping and pessimistic generalities such ais those- of Malthas and Itieiardo have lieen repeatedly disproved by Iluma.ll experience, and l-lic history of the past hundred years fully justifies the belief that mankind is well equipped for a long and .successful struggle to maintain itself on earth lor ages he fore it will I'ccl constrained to “sit down and starve.”