MORE POPULATION FOR N.Z.

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21812, 18 June 1936, Page 15

MORE POPULATION FOR N.Z.

TO THE EDITOH OR THE PRESS. Sir,—Life on this earth is given to us as a trial to see what is in us, to fit us, not for an endless rest in a heaven of a continuous chorus of paeans of praise of the Almighty, but for the further work and trials in some other world of the millions upon millions of worlds there are in the universe. Let us therefore look "forward to the gaining of experience through suffering (for in no other way can we seem to be able to gain knowledge), as the reason and object of our being here. It is plain, therefore, that the mere hoarding up of money, or the adding of field to field here on earth, at the cost of our character being undeveloped, or perhaps developed in the wrong direction, may be only the stultifying of the purpose for which we were placed on this earth. Seeing that there must be millions of worlds with inhabitants totally different from those we know in ours, can we go on ascribing as our fate hereafter the existence for us in a mythical “heaven,” and fixing this “heaven” as a definite place? We should rather remember the beautiful words used by Christ when asked by one of the Pharisees where was heaven? His reply was “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” And this is the answer that goes to the very root of the matter. We could create the Kingdom of Heaven here on this earth by living the life that Christ did as an example, if we chose to. But it is easier to go on robbing and killing one another, while singing hymns about “this wicked earth," and place the Kingdom of Heaven far off! Let us eschew such hypocrisy once and for ever! Let us begin by questioning the wisdom of a system that allows millions of people to be on the verge of starvation, while taking food products to sea and throwing them overboard, or burning them or locking them up in fortresses underground! Forty millions, it was said the other day on a reliable authority, in the United Kingdom are underfed. And what is this done for? Only that a mere handful of exploiters should reap a greater profit on what remained, owing to its scarcity! What is the immediate need now in this country? Is it not for an increased population? But not in the way interested politicians here and in England are suggesting. We have had enough of the bringing out by “assisted passages” of the overcrowded population of the cities of the Motherland, who merely stay in our towns to compete for the few jobs offering, and refuse to go out into the country, or if they go there, very soon decline to live under such conditions as are offered and return to city life. Let us rather begin by bringing down land values to a level that will allow the many hundreds of New Zealanders, who were forced to abandon their farms during the depression, but who know what farming here is, a chance to return to the land. When we have done this, it will be time enough to talk about assisted passages for the overcrowded folks of the Mother Country. So far we have not even begun to attempt to bring land values down to their proper level. And this is of the first importance and a crying need. —Y6urs, etc., A. H. GIBSON. Ngaio, June 14, 1936.