POPULATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 40, 16 August 1944, Page 3

POPULATION

THE DOMINION'S NEED

■' FAMILY ENDOWMENT

"Whatever our plans for the future, it will be necessary that we have an adequately populated country to carry those plans into effect," said Mr> J. S. Barton, addressing the Wellington branch of , the League of Nations Union yesterday. "The time has come when we must be no longer merely a market garden for Britain," he said. "We must have our own secondary industries. At present, one-third of our farmers can produce all we eat. If ever we were thrown entirely on our own resources, presumably the other two-thirds would join the unemployed. We must have a larger population to have a balanced economy." What was our position today after a century? New Zealand had about 1,600,000 people. Lord Bledisloe's estimate of the possible future population appeared to be in line with those generally accepted. It. was 10,000,000. This country had borrowed on the London market money for railways, harbours, hydro-electric schemes, iand national development. As loans fell due we had made partial repayments, but on the whole the loans were still owing, and interest and sinking funds represented a very big burden. The facilities enjoyed by the country were adequate for a larger population, and it seemed logical to seek this population, thus making the cost less of a burden on each person. Our economy in. the past had been based on the export of primary products.' But for some time past, the speaker said, he had realised that this one-purpose economy had inherent dangers. As long ago as 1925 a visiting Chinese university man had pointed this out. -" REDUCED STANDARD OF LIVING. Personally, he thought that after the war New Zealand.would have to face a very much reduced standard of living. For a ; long, time after the war the distressed peoples of Europe would need assistance. We would be invited to come into the family of nations whose main job for perhaps a decade would be to help distressed peoples. We 'would have to look for a simple basis of life. We could not say to Britain, "We demand so much for our produce" when Britain would be under strong pressure to buy dairy produce from Europe, at perhaps only onequarter the price we would like. POPULATION TRENDS. "Having shown the need for increased population, let us examine the position," continued Mr. Barton. Increases cduld come from two sources, immigration or excess of births. Immigration had sadly fallen off. An authority had computed that if our present k trends continued, we would be in the same position, relatively, as we were in 1860. only ,20 years after settlement. The social security scheme, the speaker believed, was wholeheartedly .supported by the great bulk of the plople: It was the application of one of President Roosevelt's four freedoms," freedom • from want. But an English actuary had warned that on the present population trends, the scheme was bound to break down. Either population trends would need to alter, or the scheme would have to be altered to'fit the facts. A year ago the Prime Minister had stated that one-sixth of the population of the s Dominion were drawing benefits. ' TRUE BASIS OF PENSIONS. "Remember," continued Mr. Barton, "a pension scheme is not carried on by bank-notes or Acts of Parliament or the printing press. It is carried on only by what the working population is able to produce in excess of its own needs. This excess is available to old people, to invalids, to pensioners." ■ Japan's population was increasing at the rate of 3,000,000 a year. The primary schools attendance of New Zealand had dropped by 6260 in six years. A Hawke's Bay headmaster reported" that in some schools in that province there were no children under the fourth standard. The average family in Hawke's Bay was 1.6. Over the next 20 years Japan's population would increase by 60,000,000. There was the contrast, and the problem. New Zealand's fate had 'hung by a threat and the Battle of the Coral Sea. This time we had won. * How could we encourage young mothers to have larger families? Our national ideals needed ref6rming. It would not be right to describe the .husband as dependent on the wife, or the wife on the husband. Both were dependent on the family income. Some of the present "ideals" appeared to be: the individual had no rights, the State was everything, wages were to be increased without reference to ability or output; the criminal was a pathological case. . To expect young wives to take up the burden of motherhood today would be almost a It seemed to be a law of nature that a reduction in numbers came, until, that being too slow, along came a stronger, race to wipe out a weak people. The remedy was higher ideals between citizen and citizen, husband and wife. "I do believe that in the meantime the State should subsidise children, so that through the Treasury those who bring: children into the world and benefit the community, may receive some assistance in return.

"I do not agree with the policy that denies to a returned soldier the right to his own home. The love of home is inseparable from the love of husband and wife. I do believe that a young man starting out in life is far happier in his own rough shack, which he can improve as time goes on, than in a rented flat." ■ . ■

In conclusion, Mr. Barton made a strong plea for support for the Dominion Settlement Association. There were thousands of children of fine type who would be a great asset to the Dominion. He preferred British children, if they could be obtained. Children from other countries, if brought here young enough, would learn our language and soon become assimilated.

v The Rev. P. Gladstone Hughes, who presided, extended the thanks of those present to Mr. Barton for his address.