The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1914. PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 62, 4 July 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1914. PROBLEMS OF THE PACIFIC.

Some problems of the Pacific and how .New Zealand may take part in them during the next hundred years or so, is discussed by Professor Macmillan Brown in the last number of the "New Zealander." Very optimistically he foretells a day when this country will become "as great a lighting power in the South Pacific as Japan is in the North Pacific! and as the Mother Country has been in the Atlantic." Nevertheless, all doe lS not appear quite plain sailing to the Professor, and as he considers the birthrate, he warns us that "the cradles of the middlo class and the artisan must bo full." We often hoar a good deal about race suicide, but some interesting comparative facts are set out by "The Lyttelton Times,'" as follows:—Japan has a largo population and a high birth-rate, while New Zealand has a comparatively small population and a moderate birth-rate. But this Dominion's percentage of increase is greator every year than that of the Asiatic country, which is being quoted against us constantly by people who fear the bogey cry of "empty cradles." New Zealand's natural increase per thousand of population was 17.61 in 1912, while Japan's statistics showed a rate of between 11 and 12 per thousand. Germany's rate of natural increase is under 15 per thousand, Britain's is under 12 per thousand, and France has practically no increase at all, the births balancing the deaths. If we take the figures showing gross increases of population from all sources, immigration as well as natural, wo find that New Zealand is beaten only by Canada and South Australia. The Pominion's rate is 2.72 per hundred, compared with 1.93 for Japan, 1.40 for Germany, 1.16 for England; and Wales and

1.02 for Australia. The simple fact of the matter is that New Zealand occupies a very favorable position among the countries of ; he world as far as growth of population is concerned, owing primarily to a phenomenally low death-rate. A high birth-rate is a fine asset for a nation if it is not accompanied by a high rate of infantile mortality, hut New Zealand, with a. birth-rate of over 26 per thousand, need not envy the countries where hisrher rates mean simply an enormous annual sacrificej of infant life. I