SURPLUS POPULATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1922, Page 6

SURPLUS POPULATION.

BRITAIN’S BIG PROBLEM. MIGRATION INADEQUATE. London, March 11. Mr. Harold Cox, writing in the Sunday Times, says that Empire migration schemes are entirely inadequate to overcome the greatest British problem, that of over-population. / The population of England and WalM increased by 7,000,000 during the years 1891 to 1911, The absence of potential fathers partly cheeked thq increase during the war, but since the armistice the numbers have been increasing rapidly. The excess of births over deaths is well over 1000 daily. This is the hard fact which is confronting migration enthusiasts, combined with the rapid constriction of the British overseas markets, due to improved foreign competition and dear coal, which adds to the gravity of the problem, making it essential to reduce the present population by many mil* lions. Everybody, thinks Mr. Cox, would welcome a substantial reduction through overseas settlement, but besides the difficulties mentioned a great proportion of England's urban population is absolutely unfitted to undertake rural work. The Dominions, moreover, as far as Australia is concerned, possess a powerful Labor Party, which is op* posed to further immigration, and will not even allow English sailors or engineers to be employed on the Commonwealth liners. In ordeg to overcome this Australian statesmen have assented the British Government’s proposal to raise a huge loan in London for railways and irrigation development that will provide work for Australian trades unions as well as for immigrants. The prospect, however, is unattractive to the British investor when he remembers that several past Australian railways have been built for political purposes, and run at a dead loss. Doubtless there is room for an im- - mense further development of Australia's agricultural resources, continueli the writer, but the Australian people themselves are little inclined to develop them, for the last census showed that 2,338,000 live in the five capital cities out of the total population of 5.437,000. Mr. Cox concludes by doubting the wisdom of spending a single penny. An Empire migration scheme, he thinks, will . only meanyadditional taxation, without diminishing- the ever-increasing slum population.