The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1930 A LACK OF PROGRESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 887, 3 February 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1930 A LACK OF PROGRESS

THIS Dominion is in tlie grip of a period of stagnation. It certainly cannot be described as a virile young country going forward rapidly in all forms of appreciable progress. The rate of population growth during the past two years, for example, has been the lowest recorded officially since the bad times of the late “eighties” and early “nineties,” when New Zealand passed through perhaps the most severe financial depression in its history. Not as an exercise of pessimism, but merely as a record of cold facts, the Government Statistician, in bis latest report on “Population and Buildings” for the financial year 1928-1929, notes that uninspiring phase of the growth of population. During the period reviewed, the population of the Dominion, including Europeans and Maoris, increased only by 17,137, equal to 1.18 per cent, of the population at the beginning of the year. Eliminating the war years as too abnormal for the purpose of comparison, it is observed by the statistician that the population increase in 1927-28 was the lowest in point of numbers since 1900-1, and the lowest in the rate of growth since 1888-89. Last year showed only a slight advance on its immediate predecessor, while the returns for the calendar year of 1928 showed, with the single exception of 1880, the lowest ratio of increase ever recorded in this country. Although it was to be expected that the high rate of population growth in the earlier days of the Dominion’s expansion must decline to some extent with the advent of economic difficulties, the recent sharp fall represents a most unusual feature. The causes of the decline have been obvious and easily explained. Each of the two sources of population aggrandisement has been affected to a serious extent. In common with most of the other countries, the natural increase of New Zealand’s population has fallen. The steady decrease in the birth-rate has not been counterbalanced by an equivalent fall in the death-rate, which already has been brought down relatively to a very low rate. The birth-rate in 1928 (19.56 per 1,000 of mean population) was lower than any rate ever previously experienced. The other source of increase—immigration—virtually has been dammed. Indeed, the political ban on immigration has been so effective as. almost to create stagnation. Last year the excess of arrivals over departures was only 990, exclusive of Maoris. For the calendar year it was 682, the lowest figure since 1891. There may be some consolation in the fact that other countries are in a worse plight as regards growth of population, but it should be noted that, in spite of greater difficulties, both Australia and South Africa have excelled this country in respect of increased population during the past five years. Australia’s increase was 10.2 per cent., South Africa’s 9.8, and New Zealand’s 9.1. It is recorded by the statistician that the Dominion has passed through the normal stage of a pronounced masculine dominance in numbers and has now reached a stage where the males in the population, inclusive of Maoris, predominate in the proportion of 1,000 to 958. In all the larger towns, however, females outnumber males. As for the geographical drift of population within the Dominion, the marked movement in recent years from the South to the North has received a check. Last year the gain in population over and above the natural increase was 393 for the North Island and 598 for the South. This gain, which excludes the excess of births over deaths (10,064 in the North and 5,206 in the South) has been marked as possibly meaning the turning-point of the pronounced northward drift. Progress of population in the four main centres was maintained by an increase considered to exceed 9,000. Growth, observes the statistician, possibly was most marked in the Wellington urban area. Lower ITutt, for example, has increased its population by over 75 per cent, in the past four years. There has been considerable growth in the Auckland urban area, which has the greatest population aggregation in the Dominion, and it is noted that the suburban boroughs of Mount Albert and Mount Eden have practically reached the minimum population prescribed for the status of a city. Each is larger than Invercargill or Palmerston North.

It is clear, however, that the drastic ban on immigration has throttled progress in the Dominion. The statistical facts contain a sharp lesson for administrators and politicians who have done nothing at all in the past two years to promote Dominion expansion and prosperity.