Wanted: More Population

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 34, 20 August 1903, Page 18

Wanted : More Population

Mr. Seddon is evidently a believer in the policy of treating cancer and rodent ulcers with bread-crumb pills and poultices of rose-water. In his Budget statement he dwelt with impressive solemnity on ' the advantage of having an increased population.' He hinted that his Ministry is racking its collective brain in order to reach this consummation so devoutly to be wished ' without resorting to an assisted immigration scheme.' And he sees, or professes to see, a star of hope in the allurements which our soil, climate, and scenery are likely to offer to burnt-out Indian officers who have retired from the service of their country with enlarged livers and diminished incomes. This is not, on the face of it, a very promising palliative for the phenomenal fall which has taken place in the New Zealand birthrate during the past five-and-twenty years. In 1878 the birthrate was 337 per 1000 married women from 15 to 45 years old inclusive. In 1896 the rate had fallen to 252 per 1000. In 1901 it had dropped to 244. 'In these days of

modern civilisation,' said Father Pardow, S.J., recently, 'we glory in the horseless carriage, smokeless powder, and wireless telegraphy. Soon we will be coming to the motherless child and the childless mother.' 'SL fares the land » t0 hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.' The lines are threadbare. But .we rather think that Mr. Seddon's best plan for increasing the population of New Zealand • without resorting to an assisted immigration scheme ' . would be to organise a sweeping and persistent crusade inculcating in every peopled nook and cranny of the land the Catholic teaching on the nature and the obligations of the sacred bond of wedlock.