CROWDED JAVA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 38, 14 August 1939, Page 5

CROWDED JAVA

RELIEF BY MIGRATION

DUTCH SYSTEM OUTLINED

(By Telegraph—Press Association.;

AUCKLAND, August 13

How the Dutch Government is meet.ng the problem of over-population in Java was described by Mr. E. T. Marijn. Government inspector, who is travelling back to the Netherlands East Indies by the Maetsuycker after visiting New Caledonia to inspect the employment of native. Dutch subjects.working under contract for the French Government.

In Java, said Mr. Marijn, there was a population of 42,000,000, with an annual increase of 500,000. To cope with the problem,arising, from this growth, the Govetrl'mlht had a transmigration system whereby whole villages were transported ~bpdily to another island, such as Sumatra or Borneo, in the Netherlands East Indies. They were migrated permanently, . and by this means the Government considered it would be able to meet the' population problem for many years to come. About 1000 natives went every year to New Caledonia, said Mr. Marijn : but they did not number enough to provide much relief from the population problem in Java. Some of these men were now travelling back to the Netherlands East Indies by the Maetsuycker after completing their contract to the French Government. His Government maintained a close interest in the employment of the natives and sent inspectors regularly to Noumea to examine the conditions of employment. Mr. Marijn said he did not think the Japanese had any territorial designs southward. • Some time ago there had been a flurry of rumours about Japanese ambitions in Dutch New Guinea. At no time had the Japanese population in that country exceeded 26 men, women, and children, and he thought they had decreased slightly since then. There were about 1200 Japanese in French New Caledonia, many of them storekeepers and market gardeners, but they were hard-working and unassuming' people; and "no fears of a Japanese coup seemed to be entertained by the New Caledonian Administration. In Java there were a few thousand Japanese. Here again, however, they were busily employed in common pursuits and gave no cause for concern.