POPULATION CONTROL

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32978, 26 July 1972, Page 1

POPULATION CONTROL

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 25. The Environmental Council was viewing the question of population control, the Minister for the Environment (Mr MacIntyre), told Parliament today.

Although there was no urgency to consider population control, he said during the Address-in-Reply debate, there was a tendency to push the question aside.

Mr Maclntyre warned against any haste in trying to set a figure for New Zealand’s optimum population, but said tile country could not adopt a “laissez-faire” attitude. Population control might require that abortion be legalised, he said.

It was estimated that New Zealand's population would double in 35 years and quadruple by 2050. In 100 years time, increasing at the rate of 1.9 per cent a year, it would reach 24,000,000. If population control was necessary, Mr Maclntyre said, consideration would have to be given to slowing down or stopping immigration. Possibly families would have to be restricted to one child, though this would mean there would be too many oid people compared to young. Japan had recently found it had to pay for the welfare of its many aged, because of the “drastic steps” it took when it legalised abortion. Most of the world’s resources were finite, he said.