NATION'S WELFARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 128, 2 June 1938, Page 7

NATION'S WELFARE

POPULATION ISSUE

RESEARCH NEEDED

COMMITTEE'S REPORT

The need for competent research into the various problems arising out of population and of steps being taken to enlighten public thought on the subject are stressed in the report of the migration committee of the New Zealand Five Million Club which was issued today. "During the course of our present investigations," the committee reports, "we have felt the serious need of more thorough research into the various problems arsing out of population in the economic, social, and cultural spheres of activity in New Zealand. The field is wide and there arc many directions in which research is needed, but there is one investigation which we think ought to be undertaken immediately. The effect that a stationary or declining population will have upon the nation should be thoroughly examined and the results should be made known to the people of this Dominion. The country is drifting towards the point where the population will have become stationary, and will almost inevitably continue to drift to the point where the population will tend to diminish. The effects of a stationary population upon the national economy will be different frm those of a declining population. Both, however, will require a drastic change of national outlook. It is quite evident that few people today see any connection between population and economic and social problems. Nothing is being done to enlighten public thought. Without some measure of public education it is hardly to be expected that the people will judge soberly and intelligently of the matter. IMMIGRATION QUESTION. "As regards the main problem of immigration, there are two directions in which investigation is clearly needed. The first is to discover to what extent immigration can be used to strengthen the economic defences of the country, while the second is to examine the nature and extent of the field of industrial and agricultural development that can be exploited by means of organised migration. "We attach great importance to an investigation of each group of industries in this country with a view to finding out to what extent they can be expanded by the admission of certain types of skilled artisans, and to what extent the recruitment of such artisans would assist general employment. "Another inquiry which we recommend is the investigation of the possibilities of obtaining a fuller life for the people of this country by the introduction of cultural industries. "A more fundamental investigation is needed in addition to the researches we have already suggested. What we have in mind is a national committee directed to ascertaining the nature and direction of the future development of this country in its effort to ( reach the completeness of nationhood. The task of such a committee would involve a thorough study of the national economic and social structure of New Zealand and its relation to the present trends of population."