Overcrowded Java.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 67, 23 March 1904, Page 4

Overcrowded Java.

SOME STAGOEKIXO STATISTICS The Dutch and the leading natives in Java are of the opinion that the population is increasing too rapidly : for the good of the island. The census, taken every five years, has long shown an increase of ever 2,000,000 1 for each census period, and the rate of growth has constantly accelerate!. The increase of population from the census of 1H95 to that of 1900 was over 3,000.000. Java is only a little larger than New York State, and the central regions are too mountainous for a very dense population. The fact that the last census showed a total population of 28,745,693 indicates a frightful congestion of humanity over all the coastal and interior plains and valleys. The density of population is 563 persons for every square mile of surface, which is greater than in any province of China excepting in Shantung. If France had the same density of population its inhabitants would number 120,000,000 ; the United States at the same rate, would have 1,688,000.000 inhabitants, or about 100,000,000 more than the estimated population of the world. Such packing of humanity as this at least illustrates the fact that when every acre of tillable land Is stimulated to its highest productivity, it will give sustenance to several times the number of persons who are now supplied with food from an acre of land in most countries. The Javanese are still able to raise all their raw food and to export the products of their plantations and forests to the amount of millions of dollars a year. But they are already talking about a time to corn® when they will no longer be able to produce on their island all the food they require.