NEED FOR POPULATION

Evening Star, Issue 23180, 1 February 1939, Page 16

NEED FOR POPULATION

MAY NECESSITATE LOWER STANDARD DF LIVING A JUDGE'S IMPRESSIONS [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, January 31. “ I have come back with the feeling that sooner or later this country has got to establish itself with a solid, stable, and numerous population,” said Mr Justice Smith in an address at a luncheon of the Wellington Hotary' Club. Mr Justice Smith, who spoke of the impressions he received on a recent tour overseas, said it was his belief that New Zealand should populate itself with a stable and homogeneous population as soon as it possibly could. “ I would like our sons to consider,” he said, “ whether some lowering of the standard of living might not be desirable in order to gain a greater population. 1 hope I’m not being an alarmist, but that is the impression 1 have and 1 wish to express it.” He had made a practice overseas, ho continued, of endeavouring to estimate by observation of the people in the streets the physical standards and quality of various nations. Outstanding examples of physical fitness were the young people of the United States, and he would put the young men of Germany in second place. His impression was that New Zealanders were not the finest physical specimens, though he thought they 'could be.