RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 301, 16 September 1936, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

» .. . Sidelights on Current * Events

(By

Kickshaws.

If mechanised jwarfare has come to stay, maybe some inventor will give us a machine to/do all the saluting in the next war. ' It is noted that trees treated chemically are being used as food in Germany. Hitler is welcome to his stakes. This idea of building a centennial hall at Rotorua to house Maori legends is so good we suggest that a similar building be erected to house the anglers. • « * ♦ . An eminent Salvation Army leader has predicted the end of the British Empire because other races are increas-. ing more rapidly. At the moment there is a population of round about nnA.nOA npnnlA in the British Em-

iw.wu.wv people in me unnsn ranplre, spread over some 13,000,000 square miles. Next in imperial importance, so far as population is concerned, is Russia with 175,000,000 people. China has a population of 420,000,000 people, but they are not so united. The position at the moment Is that over half the world is owned by five Powers, Britain. Russia, / the United States of America, Japan and France. The Russian population is increasing at the rate of 3,000,000 people a year. At the rate that the Japanese are increasing their total would reach 108,000,000 people by 1965. Many experts, however, believe that the present Japanese rate will not be maintained. In fact, experts believe that the population of Japan will become stationary before the 100,000,000 total has been reached. • •- • ♦ Population increase is not the simple straightforward mathematical proposition that many people imagine. The real basis is the amount of food available, At the beginning of this century the future looked very on this score. In fact, the world seemed to be on the verge of doing a starve in a few years. The discovery of better methods of farming and the use of artificial manures has given us a respite. At the moment, in fact, we have pushed off the evil day for another 250 years. Before that time, however, the problems of The British’ Empire and the problems of the world as a whole would be much the same thing. By the year 2100 the world will have to be parcelled out on a basis that will over-ride Empires. The so-called empty spaces will have to be filled to best advantage. At the moment the British Empire is lop-sided. Certain parts of it are hopelessly over-crowd-ed. Other parts are nearly empty. Much can be done for world peace and the permanence of the British Empire by reshuffling the population to better advantage.

When one starts to survey the British Empire, the startling fact emerges that out of the 66,000,000 English people in the Empire no less than twothirds of them live in Great Britain. London alone has almost as many people as are in the whole of Canada and Newfoundland. New Zealand has about as many people as one of the larger inland cities of England. Australia is over 30 times bigger than England, yet it contains fewer people than are to be found in London. If only people were pawns that could be moved about the Empire chess board at will, the problem of an enduring Empire would be settled in next to no time. There are sufficient people to guarantee increased populations in every important part of the Empire in a couple of generations if only the people were in the right parts of the Empire in the right numbers. Whether the Empire stands or falls is not so much a question' of population increases as a redistribution of increased population.

One hears considerable talk about falling birth rates, but birth rates are not in themselves an indication of what is happening in any country. The death rate is as important as the birth rate. In fact, in civilised countries it is more efficacious to reduce the death rate than to increase the birth rate. In Europe, for example, the population tended to increase faster the more the birth rate fell. In France the population actually increased steadily for fifty years on a falling birth rate. An increase in the birth rate without increased supporting power for the increased population merely 'increases the death rate. In Ontario, for example, there was a birth rate of 19 per 1000 in 1900, and a death rate of 10 per 1000. Since then, the birth rate has increased to 24, and the death rate to 14. Almost the whole of the additional population foufl.d its way prematurely into the cemeteries.

So far as natural increases are concerned, it is a little-known fact; that South Africa leads the world, except for Egypt, with a rate of 16 per 1000 people. Japan’s increase, despite the song that has been made on the subject, is under 14 per 1000. Italy’s rate is just over 10, and we in New Zealand, with our abnormally low death rate, are just below Italy. Britain has an increase of only 4 per 1000. France is at the bottom of the list with 1.3 per 1000. The French population is almost stationary. It has been contended that If the Empire is to continue, it should double its population every 40 years.' This’appears to be an ideal unlikely to be attained. The world itself does not double its population in under 80 years. The time has, however, come when the migration problem should be considered on an Empire basis, if not on a world basis. When the empty spaces are fuller and the crowded spaces are emptier, birth rates and death rates will look after themselves.

“In reference to a query by ‘Scottie.’ relating to the necessity for a licence to fish for trout in Great Britain, in perusing the National Association of Fisheries Board’s Index of Fresh Water Fisheries Act, 1923, of Great Britain, I find it points out that in certain circumstances licences are necessary.” says the secretary of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. “Unlike the Fisheries Act of New Zealand, Part II of which controls the whole of the inland fishing, Great Britain lias a system of fishing boards which are empowered to issue licences to fish for salmon and trout within the boundaries of each district. My understanding is that those areas which are not controlled by a board do not fish under licence; but a system equivalent to a licence is in practice. That is to say, that a landed proprietor having fishing waters running through his property may, and does, let the fishing rights to a club, which, in turn, charges an entranee fee or issues n right to fish at a specified sum per day. In all other waters not so controlled fishing is allowed without a fee. I may not bo entirely right in my statement, but I believe the situation as stated to be substantially correct.”