Overseas aid

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 16

Overseas aid

Sir, —I would agree with M. W. Toohey (May 23) that “a further $400,000 for the construction of an airport runway” in Vanuatu is not the sort of aid that should have priority. However, some world problems are so desperately urgent that a greater commitment to constructive aid, perhaps made possible by a reduction in spending on military weapons, is the only hope of averting an impending catastrophe. I have been trying to persuade Government M.P.s to make a small amount of money available to enable New Zealand volunteers to go overseas and help build extra health and family planning clinics where they are needed. According to Saturday’s “Press,” because of “rapid population increase, deforestation, overcropping and over-grazing,” the Thar desert in India is spreading east at 140 square kilometres a year. This example illustrates a general and alarming trend as inadequately controlled growth of human populations destroys the Earth’s ecology. — Yours, etc.,

MARK D. SADLER May 29, 1989.