THE NEED FOR POPULATION

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 762, 10 March 1910, Page 6

THE NEED FOR POPULATION

In his speech, at Cheviot on Monday his Excellency, the. Governor made a suggestive .observation that ,was not.noted in the Press Association's report. "One thing which had always struck him since he came to New Zealand," 'he said, "was ' the vital importance of gradually increasing the population of the coun-. try, not only to. bear tho,. taxes and have the expenses reduced, ..but to make the country : really .self-defen-sive." His Excellency., had .no intention, of course, of expressing any. opinion as to the present rate-of taxation or the future drift of that rato, but his,statement is nevertheless significant.,' For he could not have put,the case for a larger,p,opiilation injusf'tha't \Va'y"uiilcssiie nad. been thinking, as, all sensible'- men must .think, of the-enormity of. the taxation! per head. In-referring to this matter in the past, we have always urged that it 13 a most damning commentary upon the - administrative methods in vogue in the past dozen years that a great increase of population, a, great increase of revenue, and a great intensification of the altogether exceptional productiveness of the country have,been accompanied by a great increase in the amount paid in taxation per head.. His Excellency's' 'statement implies that an' increase Vbf' population ought to mean a lessening of the average burden borne by the people. And this would be the case in any well--governed country, even if it were an old country, and not, as in our case, a young country in which'production must in the, nature of things increase faster than 'the population. x Any economist will admit that it is'altogether unnatural that the taxation per head should not have'.' steadily, decreased in New Zealand. But it has not decreased. It has not even stayed at the same figure. It has increased enormously. It is about twice as high as the rate in Britain, which is reckoned as a hijjh war rate. Unless new administrative methods are introduced rip increase of population will lighten the average burden. The more pernio there are, the more each one of them will be asked to pay. ;