OVER-POPULATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 6

OVER-POPULATION.

Might I be permitted to point out why the reasonings of Malthus gained wide acceptance and are still quoted? At the peiiod he wrote England was in a deplorable condition. Deaths from starvation were so common in London that the newspapers made even no reference to them. Malthus endeavoured to shift the blame from the shoulders of the rich to Nature. "Nature," he said, "k bringing more mouths into the world than therp is food to fill." This was soothing to the rich, and so "Sir John" and "His Grace" were satisfied that no social adjustment could be brought about when the fault was Nature's—and not man's. "The consummate ass" (to quote Henrv George) named Malthus was not capable of discussing economics in a grocer's shop. "The House that Has" found in him a stalwart champion, and so, reasoning thus, this most fallacious of philosophers found the ground prepared for the most mischievous propaganda that has ever been conceived in the mind of man. To-day a sixth-class schoolboy could see through the fallacious reasoning of Malthus. It seems incredible that any adult should quote him. His "Essay on Population" simply proved his total incapacity to deal with what has cau-sed —and is causing—poverty amid advancing wealth and general progress. One thing is absolutely certain, that it is not caused by over-population.

HERBERT MULVIHILL.