THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. "Public Service.” MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1945. NEED OF POPULATION

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 54, Issue 32628, 1 October 1945, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. "Public Service.” MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1945. NEED OF POPULATION

In the international jostling for places in the new era of peace one fact stands out clear and challenging. If the British race were double its present numerical strength it would be in a vastly more favourable position in the current negotiations. The soundest advice that could have been given the race in the past century was to thrive and multiply, and that advice is more urgent to-day than ever. If Britons to-day occupy a less prominent place' in the world than formerly it is not because they individually have weakened, or that the race as a whole is less strong, but because other nations have increased their populations more rapidly. Britons have not lacked the opportunity. They have more living space and access to more resources than any other people. They might in the past century have developed each of the Dominions to a strength comparable with that of Britain herself, and expanded the colonies similarly. But they lacked one attribute—the virtue of reproducing adequately. This is the greatest challenge of the modern age. The Empire might have been safe beyond peradventure; it might again take the lead if it builds its manpower in accordance with its opportunities. There is something fundamentally wrong with the moral health of a race that will not reproduce in sufficient numbers.

Consideration of the birth rate has 1 in the meantime been submerged by other pressing problems, and the same has occurred with regard to other methods of increasing the population of British countries. But this drift has been going on for many years. Immigration to New Zealand had ceased long before the war began, and the natural increase has become more and more unsatisfactory, with minor fluctuations 1 , over two or three decades. Among the

Dominions, Canada is marching forward to greater nationhood, but in terms of population little progress is being made by the other Empire countries. There is need for rehabilitation on a grander scale than has been attempted in recent years. It must come if the British race is to regain or maintain its place in the vanguard of civilisation.