AUSTRALIA & DOMINION

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 53, 6 March 1929, Page 11

AUSTRALIA & DOMINION

ABSORPTION OF IMMIGRANTS

(Written for "Tho Post.") (By Professor D. B. Copland, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce in the University of Melbourne.)

Australia .suffers in the eyes of other nations on account ,of her wide areas of uninhabited territory. It matters :iot that other great, .countries like Canada, Siberia, and.some South.American Bepublics have their empty spaces. Most of these ..empty, spaces are taken for granted, but .Australia is looked upon as a country 'which, on account of "White Australia," and other restrictions oii immigration,* has deliberately set about limiting her population. In a sense this 'limitation is deliberate,' but it is based upon a desiro to maintain a high standard of living, and to avoid social problems that have arisen in America, on account of free immigration. It is true that Australia could take more immigrants, white as well as "black, if she decided to admit people with a lower standard of living. There might bo a real economic gain in such a step, but it is out of the question as n matter of practical politics. The immigration policy, of Australia is define, itely fixed, by. the determination to maintain, if possible,' a high standard »f living. Is not this also true of New fraland? With a much smaller area" there is. no suspicion of keeping vast empty spaces unsettled, but the New Zealand immigration policy* ia just as effective as that .of Australia. There is virtually a White New Zealand policy, and when the standard of living is threatened New Zealand takes action to restrict .immigration just as effectively as' Australia. Thus wo have the recent restriction imposed upon assisted immigration from Great Britain. Exr cessive unemployment in New Zealand "was given as the reason for this action, but it may be doubted whether New Zealand can continue to absorb her natural increase of population and also to sustain her > post-war immigration, ■whilst at the same time maintaining the existing standard of living. It is this problem which it is proposed to examine in this article. • . BATES OF NATURAL INCREASE IN'POPULATION. Enough has been said already to suggest that the differences in the immigration policy of Australia and New Zealand are more apparent than real. An examination of statistics will confirm this view. Tho ■ Commonwealth Statistician has shown; that tho normal rate of increase of the Australian population before the war was 2£ per cent, per annum, of which. If per cent, was due to natural increase and i per cent, to immigration. Tits is a very high rate of increase, and is not exceeded by any country in the world. At this rato the population would doublo in'about 30 years. The latest returns show that this rate of. increase ■' lias been- maintained in-recent years. From 1917-27 tho average annual rate of increase was 2.27 per cent., of which 1.4 per cent. only was duo to natural increase, and 9 per cent, to immigration. Tho latter is unduly high, first on account of the soldiers returning from tho war, and, socondly, on account of a few years of active immigration. In recent: years the rate of natural increase has been 1.3 per cent, pfir annum, despite the fact that the birth rate ia only 22.7 per thousand. If this rato of natural increase persists,', the -immigration; rate will not be greater than .7 per cent, per annum, and it would'be moro correct to placo it at .5 per cent., or not more than 35,000 per annum'on tho existing, population. . : • ;.

New Zealand figures; do not differ materially from those of Australia. From 1880 to the Outbreak of the war there was a fairly uniform increase, the average annual increase being a shade more than ":} per cent, per -annum, of which nearly 1.9 per cent, was due to natural increase. The rate of natural increase has been less recently,'being 1.26 per cent; per annum for the quinquennium 1923-27, with the birth rate' at 21.2 per thousand. There is a tendency for the rate of natural increase to decline a little 'further, but assuming it remains at 1.2 per cent., tho immigration figure might be placed at 5 per cent., or, roughly,-7000 on the existing population. ■ -