The Guardian corporated the West Coast Times And Evening Star, with which is in- TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1932. POPULATION PROBLEM.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1932, Page 4

The Guardian corporated the West Coast Times And Evening Star, with which is inTUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1932. POPULATION PROBLEM.

A special article appeared in an Engli'sJi journal recently in connection with the failure of the r'/cent Ottawa conference to deal with the problem c f the Empire’s 'population, in the course of which it stated that the iA minions have a fertile soil and vast natural re o rees, but lack population. Both C'a.nda and Australia have almost as large an area as the United St ten, hut Canada lias a population about the same as that of

> greater New York, and Australia tut j little more'than-the. combined population of the next two largest American j cities, Chicago and Philadelphia. 1 Roughly speaking, the United States with an area of 3,730,000 square mites hJas a population of 137 million. Compare this with Australia, which has an area of 3,000,000 square miles but

a population of only million. The area of Canlada is 3,700,000 square miles, and her population is about 10,1 million. In her case, however, vast frozen expanses of her northern territories must be taken into consideration. South Africa has an area of 800,000 square miles and a population of 8 million. New Zealand has an area of 105,000 square miles, land a population of 1{- million. The need seems so oovious, yet immigration, which could fill that need, found no place on the Conference agenda art 1 no official committee was set up to study it. : In the abstract, nearly every Canadian, South African or Australian, will agree that the Dominions are under-populated. Australia is not happy guarding her vast and empty domain against the influx of Asa’s teeming millions with so pitiful a garrison. The South African sees 1 the benefits of increasing his country’s whit© population to offset the native black elements. The Canadian has no desire to be caught in the. gravitational field of his more populous neighbour to the south. The Dominions need more people and admit it. The M >ther Country, England, is burdened with an army, of perpetual unemployed. Why is the obvious solution to this lhok of a more balanced population .throughout the Empire not adopted? There is up sense' in shutting one’s eyes to tine fact that the Dominions do not look upon immigration er, a practical possibility. They fear the means of achieving the end which 'logic forces them to recognise ias desirable. The birth-rate is higher in the Dominions than in the Mother Country, especially among the French speaking Canadians, but what; is, the cradle compared with the immigrant ship 1 The Dominions at present do rot wjant immigrants, and therefore immigration has not been officially included on . the Conference agenda; This attitude is based first upon a misconception. The immigrant is...regarded as another competitor, ns a new nrodueer in, a country which at present finds difficulty in securing markets for producers already there. He is not regarded as another eonsup'er, as one who ,will increase, the market for those producers. The short viqw is taken, not tthe long. The sectional interest triumphs over the general'interest. A ►yrnimintee of the British Economic Migration Council rtported last May on Empire migration, and approved of the cheap-fare system to Canada, but did not recommend its extension to the more distant Dominions. It '.submitted suggestions for tire improvement and extension of existing machinery, but it did not offer any schemes for Empire land settlement on a large scale, because of the marketing problems it raises. The committee noted (after eliminating areas which are 1 unsuitable for permanent white settlement) that the density of population is 3.75 per square mile in Austral a, 7.25 in Canada, and 16.8 in New Zealand, compared with 678 f"England and Wales, and 483 for Great Britain, and Ireland.