THE PROBLEM OF POPULATION

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 8, 4 October 1935, Page 10

THE PROBLEM OF POPULATION

From a quarter least expected —the Labour Party—comes a suggestion that the Government should do something definite about the problem of population. In the House of Representatives Mr. W. E. Barnard has given notice to ask lhe Prime Minister, in view of his recent statement that “our first duty is to our own people,” if he would set up a committee of research to investigate the problem of increasing the population of the Dominion, and to report on the changes necessary for the purpose. The Labour Party hitherto has refused to entertain any suggestion that this question should be discussed as long as unemployment exists. Mr. Barnard’s question suggests that at least one Labour member has been impressed by its importance. A committee of research such as he proposes could, be usefullv employed in obtaining estimates of our population requirements in relation to undeveloped lands and the proportion of users and consumers needed to bring the capital- invested in such public services as railways and hydro-electric, installations to full earning capacity. This information would provide valuable data should the question of Empire migration come up for serious discussion in the near future. Italian colonisation and Britain’s empty spaces have been the subject of frequent references in connection with the present crisis,, and it is becoming increasingly evident that the problem of Imperial migration will have to be faced. The policy of “keep out” will no longer hold with nations unable to find space for their own people. Before any scheme of immigration is possible, however, there must be economic planning to provide for the new-comers. That is partly a matter for the individual States of_ the Commonwealth, and partly for Imperial co-operation. The New Zealand Government, with others, will have to rouse itself, and Mr. Barnard is to be complimented upon raising the question in a form which should elicit something more tangible than the Prime Minister’s recently-uttered policy of do nothing.