POPULATION PROBLEM

Evening Star, Issue 22895, 1 March 1938, Page 13

POPULATION PROBLEM

> SUGGESTION TO ROTARY CLUBS

NEW ZEALAND'S DEPLORABLE POSITION

At the recent conference of Rotary at Christchurch, Dr E. S. Stubbs, president of the Oamaru Rotary Club, made suggestions for community service activity in the matter of the Dominion’s population, and, at the weekly luncheon of the Oamaru Rotary Club, he read a paper on the subject. The proposal was that Rotary should take corporate action to awaken the community to the need for increased population and to arouse statesmen and the citizens generally to their responsibility, said Rotarian Stubbs. He contended that there was no organisation that could so effectively perform the task as Rotary. Indicating the magnitude of the need for more population, he quoted the Government Statistician, who had said the excess of births over deaths had steadily declined from 29.41 por 1,000 in 1876 to 7.92 per 1,000 in 1936. Where the birth rate was low and declining the population might actually be failing to replace itself, even while births exceeded deaths—a state of affairs resulting from several factors, and, in particular, from the diminishing proportion of women of child-bear-ing age. The Government Statistician had gone on to show that the changes indicated must affect social economy in many ways. There would be a smaller proportion of child life and youthful activities. Later, there would be a smaller proportion of adults able to wprk, or fight, in order to support, or defend, society. There would be a higher and higher proportion of aged to be cared for. In 1874 there was only 2.33 per cent, of the population over 60 years of age, but in 1930 there was 10.44 per cent. The population question was not merely political, but was vitally human for New Zealanders. Sir Phillip Gibbs had said; “The dominions must open their gates to emigration from many lands, or as surely as the sun shines and rivers flow they will he forced to do so.” Densities of population per square mile were: Germany 348, Japan 453, Italy 358, New Zealand 16.5. If present trends continued New Zealand’s population would never exceed 18 per square mile. It was not forgotten, continued Dr Stubbs, that there were great difficulties. Some of the related problems were:—(l) Abortion. Dr Dorfs Gordon had estimated that there were over 6,000 pregnancies, about- 20 per cent, of our national birth rate, wilfully aborted in 1935. (2) The contraceptive problem. (3) Sterility. Over 24 per cent, of New Zealand marriages proved sterile. (4) Economic and family'security. Our people were still largely shadowed by fears of sickness, uneraEloyment, old age, and the death of the readwinner. (5) The family allowance problem. What could be done by financial inducement to encourage child bearing (6) Domestic help, a problem that, was a cause of family restriction. (7) Luxury. Must we maintain our standard of living at any cost to the birth rate? (8) Women’s proper sphere in these days of “ sex equality ” and “ emancipation of women.” (9) Education. Should all of our daughters receive their school education exclusively from spinsters? (10) The moral problem, the balance between selfishness and self-indulgence on the one hand and altruism, idealism, and patriotism on the other.

It was a commonly-held fallacy, said Dr Stubbs, that immigration meant more unemployment. If that were true the percentage of unemployment in the various countries of the world would tend to be in the order of their numerical populations, which it was not. The cause of unemployment was not population, but moral, psychological, and economio maladjustment. An influx of immigrants would mean a lasting stimulus to trade and industry, particularly if the immigrants were properly financed during the period of their absorption into industry. There existed a desperate and largely unrealised national danger. Rotary had the position and the prestige to give important help by its corporate action.