N.Z. Trade And Asian Rises In Population

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28321, 5 July 1957, Page 12

N.Z. Trade And Asian Rises In Population

New Zealand’s opportunities for expanding her Asian markets were closely tied to one factor over which the Dominion’s exporters had no control—the rise in population in those countries, said Professor W. F. Ogburn, of Washington, in Christchurch last evening. He has been advising the organisers of India’s Five-Year Plan on population—specifically family planning. “It is not any increase in a nation’s gross national product which makes it a better market, but the amount each man and his family has to spend.” he said.

The dams, cement works, factories and new homes which were being built in India, and the new tractors and farm equipment which were being imported, would have no effect on raising the standard of living there if the population continued to increase at its present rate. There was nothing written in the Hindu religion which opposed birth control, he said, and the Government of India was in favour of it. The women of India were generally favourably inclined. But most men wanted a son, and they, with their wives, wanted. children to support them in their old age. This, in a country without social security planning, was an important factor favouring large families.

Professor Ogburn, who is an economist and a sociologist, spent a year in India as a Fulbright lecturer, visiting about 25 universities. He returned to lecture at the Indian School for - International Studies of the University of Delhi, and became a consultant on the first five-year plan. He has taught at Columbia University, was professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, and he has taught at Nuffield College, Oxford. He retired in 1951, aged 65, before going to India. He said he had come to New Zealand through South-east Asia and would return home, aftei visiting the Philippines, later this year.

The United States, he felt, was not getting all the publicity possible from the millions of dollars it was pouring into Asia. Russia was an investor on a smaller scale, but often received more publicity value for money spent. India, as an example, was strongly nationalistic, and he doubted whether the average Indian farmer or clerk had much awareness of the massive foreign investment in his country. It was not the Indian Government’s policy to emphasise this support, although it was acknowledged.

With other Asian countries he had visited, said Professor Ogburn, India was having diffi-

culty in assimilating all the technical assistance available. She did not have the trained technicians.

“For this reason they will be sending to the United States this year about 100 graduate engineers who will study the latest advances in their fields. Their problem is the same as Russia’s in the early years of the revolution.” Of all the countries in Asia, said Professor Ogburn, he most wished to visit China, but was resigned to accepting a refusal. He had not yet applied for a visa. “Asia is on the march—have no doubt about it—but I sometimes wonder if the ordinary man is going to benefit much,” said Professor Ogburn.