THE OVERFLOW OF MANKIND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2665, 10 August 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE OVERFLOW OF MANKIND.

The House of Commons skipped delicately and decorously round the most important subject that is ever likely to come before it. But none of those who epoke seemed to be adequately impressed with a deep sense of the immensity of the problem with which they have to deal. The only true policy in philanthropy, as in religion, is the electic and catholic. When so much work has to bo done, we can spare no zealous worker. In view of the overflow of mankind in such congested districts as London and our great cities, it is ridiculous to rely upon any one nostrum. We need to try all things, and even then we know that we shall conic short. Our population is increasing- nt the rate of 1000 persons per day. In twenty years eight millions will be added to the number of inhabitants in these crowded islands. What is to be done with them ? How arc they to be fed ': The problem is so serious and it may at any time become so pressing, and there is no suggestion which promises a solution, however desperate, that will not he eagerly discussed. No considerations of morality or prejudice are likely to stand in the way of tiie adoption of any scheme which offers the nation a way of escape from the impending catastrophe. Already the doctrine of postponing marriages—a doctrine which is infinitely more noxious from the point of view of practical ethics than the limiiiation of families—has many

disciples " There is no Yellow River," as Mr Seton Karr cynically observed in his speech " iu this country, as there was in China, to reduce the population by seven millions at one time," and although the Opposition greeted his remarks with cries of " Oh, oh, : ' there were probably not a few who in their heart of hearts felt that after all it might he convenient to improvise a substitute for a Yellow River. Otherwise what is to be done ? A daily net addition of 1000 mouths to be fed is not a difficulty to be conjured away by this kind of rosewater. If we deal with all our land as the French did with the estates of tin; noblesse a hundred years ago, we shall still be left face to face with the same problem. No scheme of redress can ulfoi-il other thaji temporary relief. In Fiance we see a difference no doubt, but only because the French have cut their coat according to their cloth, and adjust their population to their means of subsistence. Of course if a readjustment of our land laws introduced among us the French families, then so far as the agricultural population was concerned t'ue problem would be solved. But do what we please we shall never be mainly agricultural again, and tiie multiplication unchecked of the industrial population would still leave us confronting this riddle of the Sphinx. There is only one thin;; quite, clear, and that is that it is little abort of a crime for any Minister to do as Lord Knutaford is only too ready to do - namely, to surrender the control and nnnagement of the vast unoccupied terriotrics still in the hands of the Crown to the handful of squatters who are now on their rim. At any cost we must keep in our hands the waste lands on which alone our people can have a, chance to live. Pall Mall Budget, 4th April.