Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1911. THE CENSUS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10229, 4 May 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1911. THE CENSUS.

The disclosures made by the various census enumerators in New Zealand are highly interesting. They show that in many districts, notably in the South Island and in the lower portions of the North Island, there has •been 'little, if any, increase in the population during th? Last decennial period. Some have attributed this to the growing development of the Auckland province, consequent upon tlu> cp-ivi)" of the Main Trunk railway. The movement northward during thv last few years lias undoubtedly drained the southern districts of some of their best settlers. It has not, however, been entirely responsible for the stagnation which has been revealed in other parts. When the census of the Dominion is completed, it will be found that the nat-

Ural increase has been alarnyingly small. The birth-rate has shown a serious decline in every part, and the number of births in proportion to marriages is annually becoming smaller. This is an aspect of the question which students of eugenics as well as of political economy will require to give serious attention. With all the climatiio and other advantages claimed for New Zealand, the population is drifting from our shores. There is something fundamentally wrong. Is it that our people are being too highly educated? Or. do they attach less importance to national and moral obligations? Or, are our social conditions such that men and women shrink from the responsibilities of parenthood on account of the annually-increasing cost of living? Whatever the cause, the cold, dismal fact stares us in the face that this "paradise of the working man," this land which flows with milk and honey, offers no inducement to immigrants and no encouragement to those within our shores to increase and multiply. The national estate is yearly becoming more valuable; the exports are increasing )by leaps and bounds; the national resources are being rapidly developed. And yet the population remains almost at a standstill. Why is it? Echo answers, why?