WILL FALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 144, 21 June 1939, Page 13

WILL FALL.

POPULATION TREND.

EUROPEAN POSITION.

MEANING FOR NEW ZEALAND.

' Populations in the future in European and Amerean countries would be smaller than to-day, said Mr. H. R. Rodwell, senior lecturer in economics at the Auckland University College, in the course of a public lecture given Inst night at the college under the university extension svtstem. Professor Julius Stone, Professor of Law at the college, presided. The decline in populations would begin almost immediately, the speaker said, and to plan on the assumption of increasing numbers would lead countriee into mistaken policies. Was it wise, he asked, if Britain's population was about to fall, to regard the United Kingdom as being capable of absorbing everincreasinfr quantities of meat, butter, j chet-ee and wool from Xew Zealand? i In a country whero iuitnl>ers would fall, Mr. Hod well ttdded, there would be; more adults and fewnr children. There would l»e a greater demand for luxury and near-luxury lines. Demand, therefore, would lie less stable, more likely to fluctuate with conditions of prosjiority, and production would be more rigid. Tlie aftermath of the war had shown that the old "catch-as-catch-ean" methods of the 19th century were no longer adequate. Deliberate action had Imm'h recognised as necessary to ensure that the goods really needed were those produced. A rapid extension of State intervention had been the result. Such intervention would have to be planned in the future, with due regard for falling populations, so that coming generations would not be burdened with unnecessary costs.