MORE PEOPLE NEEDED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 73, 23 September 1938, Page 6

MORE PEOPLE NEEDED

A WARNING NOTE

MR. BARKER AT BREAKER

BAY

A warning that too little attention was being paid to the necessity for increasing population in New Zealand and maintaining the country's production, was sounded by Mr. W. L. Barker, National candidate for Wellington East, when speaking at a highly successful meeting at Breaker Bay last evening. The meeting was attended by about 40 people, and at the conclusion the gathering rose and sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," and "Rule Britannia." Mr. R. G. Mexted presided.

In his address, Mr. Barker said that today this country had reached a stage in the declining rate of its population growth at which the old were becoming numerically greater and the young were growing numerically smaller. The young were being compelled to shoulder undue burdens, which would inevitably operate to the detriment of a young country such as New Zealand, checking the expansion which should take place naturally.

It was ridiculous, the speaker added, for any politicians to say, "I have created prosperity." Any beneficial adjustment in the distribution of income in this Dominion that had taken place since Labour became the Government had been possible solely because better prices than usual had been received for our produce overseas. This position would show no dangerous symptoms if this high rate of export income were maintained, but the situation which had been created in New Zealand under the Labour Government —excessive expenditure on unproductive public works, which drew labour from legitimate industrial enterprise and compelled reduced production— had raised extremely dangerous possibilities, which would immediately become reality when a price recession occurred. If this development within the country continued—leading to an ever-increasing circle of higher costs— the Government would find itself in grave difficulty.

Important fundamental factors overlooked by the Government were the capacity of industry to pay and the power of the consumer to purchase. Capital would have to be encouraged back into industrial channels if New Zealand was to be cured of its financial headache, which was rapidly growing worse. Had the Labour Government possessed true solicitude for the people of the country, as it professed, it would have concentrated long ago upon the amelioration of slum conditions, instead of forcing the private house builder off the market and making the housing situation worse than hitherto.

After several questions had been answered, Mr. Barker was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence, and a vote of thanks was also accorded Mr. Bell for the use of his hall.