SHEEP AND POPULATION FIGURES

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 33, 8 August 1934, Page 8

SHEEP AND POPULATION FIGURES

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —One' expects accuracy from the chairman of tho Associated Banks of New Zealand, and when that -gentleman states as the reason .for a continued high price- for wool, that the sheep population of the' world-is not increasing so rapidly as the human population, one is inclined to'assume that he is correct, especially, as tho assuranco is comforting. The sheep census figures over a period of years are not striptly comparable, vast now sheep resources being shown in tho latest census. Taking only thoso countries shown in both the 1926 and 1934 figures, the former total 446,000,000 and the latter 554,000,000, a 25 pc-: cent, increase. All the leading countries havo increased their flocks—Australia from 80,000,000 to 110,000,000, Bussia from 69,000,000 to 90,000,000,' Argentine from 30,000,000 to 44,000,000, South Africa from 31,000,000 to 49,000,000, New Zealand from 24,000,000 to 27,000,00, Great Britain from 22,000,000 to 26,000,000, between 1926 and 1934. The world's human population has not increased at anything like such a rate, and increases are mostly in tho warmer non-wool-using countries. But, in any ease, has not the increase of human population much less to do with the price of wool than the ability of the peoples of tho world to pay the price?—l am, etc., A. 13. ROBINSON. - Auckland, August 6.