Towards a ‘population policy’ for N.Z.

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 19

Towards a ‘population policy’ for N.Z.

'By a st aft reporter)

If the world could achieve, by the year 2000, a rate of births which did no more than replace the number of people who died, its total population should stabilise at around 8000 million by the year 2100, the Governor of the Reserve Bank I (Mr A. R. Low ) told a United Nations Association seminar on world population in Wellington.

Mr Low said that only in |recent years had the world’s population growth accelerated at a rate which deserved to be called an explosion. A population of 1000 million was reached about 1830; it took another 100 years to reach 2000 million; 3000 million was reached after 30 years, in 1960; next year the population would almost certainly reach 4000 million. ( The seminar was timed to precede a United Nations ’conference on world population in Bucharest, Rumania, during August. The United jNations has declared 1974 “World Population Year” in ■an effort to make more (widely known the drastic 1 changes taking place in the 1 world’s population and pressures on resources.

j A wide range of social and 'political groups were represented among the 150 dele- ; gates at the conference. (Many seemed bemused and ( bewildered by the magnitude lof the problems facing some (other countries; some sugigested that some countries (might have passed a point of (no return in the struggle to adjust their population to available resources.

Examples given The Rev. M. J. Eade, speaking on behalf of the Ambassador for Bangladesh, said that Bangladesh had a population 25 times as large as that of New Zealand squeezed into an area half that of this country. The population continued to increase at 3.1 per cent a year, more than twice the rate of the increase in New Zealand.

A quite different situation was described by Mr N. E. Ledesma, of the Argentine I Consulate, who said his (country, of 25 million people, (was still underpopulated. Contraception and abortion |on demand would not be (receiving Government support there, he said, a sugges-

tion which drew shocked i murmurings from some of the women present, several' of whom, wearing tags which; introduced them as “Ms,” ! knitted productively through! much of the discussion. The audience was com-1 pletely disarmed, however, L when Mr Ledesma added

that, before they decided • women were slaves in the Argentine, they should remember that since the death of General Peron Argentina had had a woman president, Peron’s wife This was not the only

strange by-way in two days of wide-ranging discussions. Some speakers blamed population difficulties on causes as divergent as shipping freight rates, the misuse of credit, and population of the environment; But the seminar finally decided that even if New Zealand, by the standards of the rest of the world, had no population problem and none likely for at least two more generations, it should promptly announce a population policy.

Target suggested The policy should be directed at stabilising the country’s population within a defined period in a manner that would be consistent with New Zealand’s goals as a multi-cultural society. A population target of five million was suggested by Mr R. K. Davidson, chairman of the Environmental Council, who added that the figure ; should be constantly reviewed. This suggestion was better 'received than a proposal that • the best interests of New [Zealand would be served by reducing the population to) •500,000 almost all of whom/ (would concentrate on producing primary exports, the:' ;sale of which would give ; (them an income per head 1 approaching that of an oil ' sheikdom. •’