PREVENTION OF CRUELTY. NEW ZEALAND'S POPULATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 22 February 1907, Page 2

PREVENTION OF CRUELTY.

NEW ZEALAND'S POPULATION.

Everybody is acquainted with the dear old lady or ihf 110 less cxpen-iw ohl gentleman, who approache.-j the pi 1 spiring driver of a jibbing team and threatens him, w/tli all tiie perils of here and hereafter because he bumps -tile s]iatiers iji the I —> eelteet organisation, (the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, :iiid 1 lie great and terrible aniw of people who have never anything to do with animals except to tell peopl • w'm breed and use tin mi lmw to handle them, it cannot be proved that tinavei'jge user is cruel. The dear old l.uly who nearly faint, at the s'glit of the carter 'in her lime killed'some eh ld:vn with over-feeding or. ill-feeding, l.a; kept them out at liigiit in a smelly publ.c building, and ha, upset all the laws of nature because she believes! slu knows just what is best for children and cattle, dogs and horses. The dear old lady who hates to sec a jibbing horse made to pull most, probably has a caged canary or two at home. She possibly has her ideas about the dressing of a child. She pins it up into the most grotesque and uncomfortable bundle. The baby feels more discomfort than the sore shouldered or girthgalled horse feels, although, of course, we are not advocating sore shoulders or gJii'thgalTs. The average person is more cruel to his; fellow man and llie children than he is to li is antmals, simply because the aninrils represent a ea->h value and a source of income. If the animals are cruelly treated they are una-blo : to earn the money tliev otherwise would earn—therufore excepf, in isolated cases they do not get cruelly (rented. The suggestion made locally fhat s-jngle-souled people should nose round the farms in order fo see if the farmers are hurting their working stock, if put into operation, would we should think be bad for the people who desired to show a farmer how lo work his ploughing team, or teach him how to manage, h : s sheep dog with the minimum of fatigue to the dog. One ne\er hears of a v.T.v j very kind pcr,on refusing to eat wet-1

her mutton. He doe, not say he prefers rniii-muUon becait-e to-obtain the. other kind cruelty is rtpcessary. The gentleman who writes to the papers saying (hat cruelty is, rampant, limy go home and ma 111 a fly with his handkerchief because it annoys lim. il'liat fly feels just as bad crawling 11 bout with half its> members gone as Ihe over divvou hotse. tWe ■d'f'iest, cruelty and love logic. Nature lives cruelly, and, from" our standpoint, is illogical. Nature with one sweep of 11 talal wave can be inexpressibly cruel. Everything in nature preys tiie one 011 the other, often inflicting intense torture. If a certain brand of person is going to poke about around the farms in Taranaki to put down suppose 1 cruelly the farmers will have to come to town and see how ihe poi'sous treat their olliee staJEs and, their wives and children. The house wite who attends church three times 011 Sunday, is a member of the AntiCruclly League and a philantrop'st ol 'lie deepest dye, never remembers that even in the simple operation of boiling the kettle she is cruel to millions of GtiJ'ji lireatin'es, for tjlie anfinalculae in the water are as capable of feeling pain as is the bullock that pull* its toenails off dragging timber out, of Ihe bush.

The .Registrar-General has fesuort :i 11 ■:( flc I showing tile movement uf iihition I'm- the years I!I|J2 l<» ljioii. Its mo-i ijitoiestinn' feature is the informal ion it iill'onls as to tlie gain ol population 1..y immigration. In 1!)02 Ihe population uX New Zealand vi a WJi,!)2!), being an increase on the previous year's figures of 20,272. In l!lu;i I lie total population of tile colony had risen to ,s:i2.f>o;i. in IOU-i to in 1 10 882,11.2, and in 1900 to OIIS,7IS. Tile excess of births over deaths last year was I.WU3, and Hie net gain in ihe ]ioptilalion for the twelve liion-

tils 25.71i1. In tin? year 1902 tlio net .im.-rease departures foil ;i litlie, J)i?in«r manlier of persons who left Mow Zealand. was 7!'!)2 and in I'M 11,275. In ]{)< H(, lie arrivals over departures fell it little, being 10,350 persons, and in llldo stiil further 9302, hut the year lOOli shows the largest increase of all, the arrivals, being 12,S4S persons over the departures. In

Jive years New Zealand lias gained, according to the returns, 51.772 person* from abroad, mostly from Australia and the Home Country, after deducting those who departed outwards The natural increase of l>irths over dentin is considerable, on account of tlm low death rate, and shows a steady rise over eacli of the five years dealt with in the 'table. The total excels of births is 71,794 for the qumtjueiiuium under 'observation, .