MORE PEOPLE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 23 December 1933, Page 8

MORE PEOPLE.

AUSTRALIAN POPULATION MAY REACH 100,000,000. SYDNEY, Dec. 14. That-Australia can eventually carry a population of 100,000,000 was the opinion expressed by the Minister for Education (Mr Drummond) at a lunch hour address before the Legacy Club to-day. Mr Drummond said that the land should be peopled with our own race. Despite its alleged dead heart, Australia had an area as great as the Argentine Republic with a rainfall of 20 inches and upwards, and another 500,000 square miles with a rainfall of 15 to 20 inches. Mr Drummond expressed the view that the future of N.S.W. had been underestimated. He said it could carry a population 50 per cent, greater than it does at present, whereas Queensland could carry 11,000,000 and Western Australia 6,000,000. In. these States, he said, the chief growth would take place, though it was admitted that the possible increase in the Northern Territory would be hard tb calculate.

H thought that ultimately Western Australia would sustain a population nearly equal to that of the present population of Australia, and Queensland a population practically twice that of the present figures. Referring to wheat Mr Drummond said that an acitual yield of 150,000,000 bushels could be reached if it was economical to do so on one-fourth of the ultimate total suggested for Australia by Dr. Richardson, who had said there was a reasonable prospect of Australia eventually producing a wheat harvest of 500,000,000 bushels or of providing bread for about 100,000,000 people. •“Wheat is at present in the doldrums/ ’ ’ said Mr Drummond, ‘ ‘but it is generally accepted that to the European people wheat is a pointer to the population capacity of the country. ’»