Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, AUG. 12, 1930. GREATER POPULATION REQUIRED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 219, 12 August 1930, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, AUG. 12, 1930. GREATER POPULATION REQUIRED.

A recent Gazette notice indicates that the population of New Zealand is approaching’ an aggregate of a million and a-half and by this time next year that figure should be slightly exceeded. The natural increase, according to Dr Valintine, is not quite as great (26,747 in 1929) as it might be, while immigration has practically ceased, the number of new arrivals from Great Britain and Ireland during the year ending March 31st last being 3369, according to a statement presented to the House last week. The present annual increase in the population of this Dominion is much slower than might reasonably be expected. According to figures published by the Government Statistician the population (including Maoris) was 1,401,230 on December 31st, 1925, whereas on March 31st of this year (after a period of four years and three months) the total was 1,488,612 —an increase of 87,382 or approximately only 21,000 a year. The population is little more than stagnant; taxation, however, is going up by leaps and bounds to keep pace with the colossal expenditure —colossal for a country with a population not yet a million and a-half. During the year ending March 31st, 1926, the national expenditure was £23,570,083 (the surplus that year being £1,155,679) while the Minister for Finance is asking for a revenue to cover an estimated expenditure this year of £25,120,000; thus the increase in taxation is £15,499,917 over that of the 1926 period. The added burden of taxation is hardly likely to attract to our shores the class of people this Dominion is at present in a very great need of —people with a little cash and who could assist in the development of the country without adding to the unemployed and incidentally becoming a charge on the taxpayer. There is a grave danger that recent legislation and increased taxation will make the

country much less attractive to our kinsmen overseas than was the case a few years back. New Zealand could, with advantage, hold many more people who, if of the right class, would be helpful in developing the country, adding to the traffic on our railways (both in the matter of primary and secondary products), and in contributing to the national exchequer, thereby giving some relief to present inhabitants ; increased population would, also, use more of our local products of the farm and factory and help to make us less dependent on overseas markets, though we must ever be an exporting country so far as products of the land are concerned. Commerce and labour would both benefit. In view of the number of unemployed it may not be advisable for the State to aid immigration to any extent, but people with some capital might be attracted if there was a certainty the investment of capital here would show a reasonable return. There is a limit to which our secondary industries may be expanded and that is governed by the extent of. population ; but there are sufficient possibilities in our primary industries to keep the present and future generations fully occiipied.