THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1943. PEOPLE WANTED

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32309, 6 September 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1943. PEOPLE WANTED

In New Zealand, as in Britain and Australia, anxious attention continues to be turned to the population problem, without, however, getting it very far ahead. The retreat from parenthood has been as pronounced in New Zealand as in any other country, . and the deputation which waited on the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in behalf of the Dominion Settlement Association, stated that on present trends our population would not be likely to rise above 1,800,000. Immigration was advocated as the immediate remedy, and the particular suggestion was made that the possibility be examined of bringing out war orphans from Europe. The Prime Minister promised that the matter of immigration would be taken up with the British authorities. The outlook is indefinite enough. The best immigrants, of course, are the children born in the country. But how can the birthrate be carried upwards? The answer lies largely in the Prime Minister’s concluding observations to the deputation: The question of increasing the birth-rate is not only an economic and financial one, but is also a moral and spiritual one, and unless young married people realise their responsibilities the country will, collapse, anyhow. A country is not worth carrying on if its people are not so steeped in selfishness that they sacrifice the future of humanity for their own evanescent pleasures.

The same introspect has been forthcoming in the recent discussions in England. “This generation of potential t parents is of record size,” comments the London Times; and upon them falls the responsibility of bearing and rearing the children of the coming generation. Yet, although they show no aversion from marriage, such is their apparent aversion from parenthood that, if present trends continue, the succeeding generation will fall at least 20 per cent, short in numbers.”

So far as the problem is economic, remarks The Spectator, family allowances, the feeding of school-children, nursery schools, more income tax relief for children, better housing and (for the mbre well-to-do) cheaper education, are among the measures which will help to restore the balance. “But the problem is not wholly, perhaps not even mainly, economic. So far as there has been a weakening in the sense of responsibility in having children, that is a matter which demands a spiritual or psychological approach . . . It is a problem not for this country alone, but for all of the white races except (at present) Russia. White civilisation may stand or fall by what is done now.” The case of New Zealand is bound up with that of Australia. The Commonwealth, we are told, is safe from invasion for the present. But a population less than that of London or New York can have scant prospect of holding this vast territory indefinitely in the future, when some prolific and land-hungry race may again reach out for living space or in predatory conquest. It has to be remembered, too, that the United Kingdom itself may be about to enter upon a period of declining population, and so unable to spare migrants in sufficient numbers. In the fact that Australia and other Dominions may have to look elsewhere for their settlers, Sir William Jowitt, the British Minister handling reconstruction problems, sees a potential threat to Empire unity. It might well be, as he says, a tragedy for future Co-operation if the Dominions were compelled to rely entirely upon the migration of aliens to fill their empty spaces.