The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1908. THE NEED FOR POPULATION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 218, 14 September 1908, Page 4

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1908. THE NEED FOR POPULATION.

The New Zealand Herald follows up our article upon this subject with an ably written contribution upon another phase of the question, that of defence. This article shows that in order to hold the territories of Australia and New Zealand with which Great Britain has endowed her sons, it is necessary to people them. "Australia has four millions where she has room for forty, and New Zealand barely a million where ten millions might work and live in comfort and abundance." There is no doubt that the best method in which to provide for adequate defence of the country is to establish upon the soil a thriving population. , Unoccupied territories invite aggression. Since the people who own them do not use them other nations may not unreasonably endeavour to establish themselves therein. It is only by utilising them to their fullest capacity that those whose heritage they are can hope-to retain peacable possession of them. The countiy known as the Northern Territory of Australia is a striking example of this. The Australian Government is taking no measures to populate this immense tract of country, the principal part of which lies close to alien land. And while Australia is supine in the matter, Japanese and Chinese are settling around Port Darwin in large numbers. Australian politicians are loudly proclaiming their intention to keep their country " all white," and have deported from Queensland the Kanaka population of that State, but she has left wide open her back door, through which hordes of yellow aliens are quietly entering and taking possession of territory lying invitingly empty. Here is Australia's greatest danger, strrd New Zealand is also affected in a lesser degree, for from Australia may come many of these undesirables when they have once Trade their footing good on the island continent. Mr Deakin talks about a white population, and descants eloquently i-.pon the need for defence, but does nothing to stay the peaceful invasion 'which has even now set in. When he was in England, it is reported tJiat Mr Zangwill, of Zionist fame, opened up negotiations with him for settling a large number of English Jews in the Northern Territory. That they would have made good colonists no one doubts. The Jew is generally successful Avhereyer he settles. One of the conditions imposed by Mr Zangwill was that the Jewish colonists should be permitted to make"their cwn laws, and this was considered, by Mr Deakin to be a ; stipulation to which Australia would not, agi-ee, and the negotiations fell through. Mr Deakin appears to have lost an excellent opportunity of establishing an additional State in Australia.' Each existing State governs itself, and why the proposal that a new one should have the same sovereign rights should be regarded as presenting an insuperable objection to the scheme is difficult to understand. But there may have been other reasons, apart from this, which induced Mr Deakin to present the cold shoulder to Mr Zangwill's proposals. That this territory must

be populated requires forcibly pressing home upon the Australian Government -by'the politicians of every State. Its v resent condition is a menace to Australasia which should no longer be endured. And NewZealand's need for population, whether for economic or defence reasons, is also a question of such importance as should dwarf all others into insignificance. This journal nas previovsly indicated the lines upon which a large industrial population may advantageously be settled m the Dominion, and th© enactment-of such a scheme by our administrators would lift our political concerns above the trivialities which engage so much attention, and elevate them to a level of statesmanship r-ot- as yet attained in the history of New" Zealand. The hour is here, but where is the man ?