SMALL GAIN IN POPULATION

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20738, 23 February 1939, Page 8

SMALL GAIN IN POPULATION

As is usual in periods of prosperity, the population of New Zealand in the year ended last March showed greater increase than had been experienced for several years. Still the increase of 17,268 from all sources was lamentably small in a country which everybody agrees needs ten times the present population. For several years, particularly during the “depression,” the country lost a considerable number of people by emigration, those leaving exceeding the number arriving, while the birth rate also was falling steadily. Last year the trend was reversed and emigrants were fewer than immigrants by 2386. This was the first year for seven years that the population had gained by immigration. The position, excepting the increase in the birth rate, is not so satisfactory when it is remembered that the trend has followed closely on lines of the depression towards the end of the last century. Prosperity and a higher standard of living attract population, but it is undesirable that people should leave when depressed conditions appear. For instance, it is not pleasant to anticipate losing the present meagre gains should less favourable economic conditions again prevail in the near future. It is, however, gratifying to note that the natural increase has been accelerated, though that also may in some measure be due to the period of prosperity. Every person who leaves New Zealand leaves behind him his share of the national debt, amounting to about £2OO, for the remainder to hear. Conversely, every arrival lifts that amount of the burden off the shoulders of the community, and in addition becomes a producer and a consumer of goods. If the population were doubled the national debt could he halved, for national expenditure has already provided the facilities aud services for more than double the present population.