Japanese Proposal

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 182, 4 August 1938, Page 10

Japanese Proposal

THE BIOLOGICAL VIEW WAIKATO BISHOP’S SCHEME (By F. W. Dry'.) (The writer, zoologist at an agricultural college, was one of the New Zealand competitors to receive honourable mention in the recent world essay competition on the subject: “How Can the People of the World Achieve Universal Disarmament?” which was conducted by the New History Society of New York.) The Bishop of Waikato has suggested that Japanese should be invited to cultivate empty parts of New Zealand. Upon this proposal some remarks are here offered from a biological angle by a rather cautious and conservative agricultural biologist. On© who has been engaged in agricultural -work of one sort or another all his working life naturally takes a certain interest in the winning of food and raiment from the soil. It is upon this basic living, won by varying amounts of human effort, and by different implements and farming systems, that we all keep going. A biologist is concerned with various functions and relationships of living creatures. They eat food, as wo have just noted, and their fortunes are linked with their surroundings in other ways. They breed, and we note that the numbers attained by a species, and the changing size of a population, are vital matters. Observe, too, the existence of inborn, inherited differences between individuals. These are aspects of animal life which it has fallen to me to study, in flies, beetles, mice, and sheep, but it interests me still more to look at our own species from the same points of view. And though a human being may be well moved by emotions, he must as a biologist contemplate his fellowmen dispassionately. Men of science observe, deduce, and speculate, but their ideas are put to the test by experiment. In some experimental work, as in indoor investigaions in chemistry, conditions aro so controlled that it is possible to. put questions to Nature one at a time, so framed as to extract an answer to yes or no. Other experimental work is of a less finely chiselled kind, and in agricultural experiments in the field many variables may bo operating at once. All the same we go ahead and experiment in order to judge whether a certain course of action brings on balance profit or loss. Let us be prepared, therefore, for experiments of a corresponding kind, with very practical aims, in our own species.

Look now at Japan. Her people have multiplied fast. They have bred freely, explosively, unwisely you may say. I think it is a pity they have increased so abundantly. They have, if you like, managed badly, or done no managing at all. But what about us in New Zealand? We are managing badly, too, without any programme. We are not breeding fast enough to maintain our numbers in the long run, and that is surely an unhealthy situation. In animal husbandry it is different. In matching feed supply and sheep population we take thought for tho morrow; we plan and control. In both Japan and New Zealand there has been no rational population policy. They err *■ one direction, as I view it, we in another. SSo let us face the arithmetic of the position like a businessman washing to avoid bankruptcy and pay his way happily. Let us square up to things as they are, and see what can be done.

In the first place, if this world and this country arc worth living in, we here ought to breed faster. Most of us will agree that our white community in New Zealand is worth preserving from numerical decoy. Social security should be extended to tho raising of children in liberal fashion, and to training for and achieving careers fitted to talents. Tho cost of this vital biological service—providing for replacements—should not in fact be a penalty on those who perform it. It is a payment we all owo to posterity for the being and up-bringing we have received from the preceding generation. Tho cost should be divided fairly amongst U 3 all. To peter out would be a pity, and a very anaemic performance, but that is our trend. Running to seed, on tho other hand, is likewise disastrous. An insect that has become swarmingly populous makes itself a. great nuisance to another animal or plant species, and then perishes wholesale by becoming vulnerable, through its super-abund-ance, to somo check. This check, if none other has brought the insect to heel, will bo simply scarcity of fooou iThus do numbers fluctuate with alternate rise and fall, expansion and catastrophe. So do animal species bob up and down, helpless shuttlecocks, powerless to control their destiny. Man can plan. In our own species over population in relation to resources puts a people In a parlous pickle. There is permanent hardship, malnutrition, and a cramped life, and when the situation Is not sympathetically considered by more fortunate nations, war, though »t may not be right, and may not prove effective, is a likely outcome. Floods subside and earthquakes cease to shake, but over-population is a standing challenge to onr sympathy. In Japan the physical nature of tho land imposes limitations on tho agriculture of the country, while the marketing of manufactured goods overseas has encountered artificial barriers. Which last fact in mentioned here without enlargement. “Let Agriculture Flourish,” to quote tho motto of a New Zealand agricultural college. Let the best of scientific farming raothods be exploited in Japan. Let export, trade be encouraged. Let over-rapid human multiplication be discouraged. Recognise this, however, that a nation which feels hemmed in is apt to look upon birth control as a threat to military strength. If a friendly hand is*lent' from outside by skimming off some surplus population, all the more hope of adoption within the country of a planned rate of reproduction. The latter might indeed be made the condition of the former.

Near the beginning inherited differences were mentioned. Inherited differences between individual animals and breeds of animals are the subject of study by research workers in heredity, and are material for the constructive enterprise of livestock breeders. In the human species there are great differ-

enccs between individuals in inherited abilities and physical fitness. Between human groups differences in external features, in hair type, skin colour, and shape of nose, aro often visible at u glance. What also of the comparative inborn abilities and aptitudes of different human groups? Perhaps it is true that the innate brain power of an African community is somewhat below that of a European community, but if so you may be sure the difference is only a matter of averages, with the majority of the two populations overlapping. It is hard to compare the genetic worth of human groups, for agreeable physical conditions, or it may be the challenge of surroundings not overwhelmingly rigorous, may favour achievement, and to disentangle that which is physically inherited from that which is handed down in the social environment is a task the verv reverse of

The position is indeed that it is difficult to demonstrate he existence of inborn differences in brain power and temperament, between nil the assorted mass of individuals—considered in tho lump—composing human groups called nations, and we inny bo satisfied that differences in average inborn capacity are small. It is non-genetic, cultural differences that count, and may set up psychological strain, when through migration people of differing customs and modes of thought come to live in the same part of the world. The very fact that these differences aro not inborn renders such human problems much easier of solution, and likely to be within the capacity of statesmanship. That Japan has jumped from mediacvalism to industrialism in no more than three generations shows that her people are adaptable enough.

In the uncertainties of this world we rarely bet on sure things, and patient knowledge, as Julian Huxley has said, is always humbly conscious of its inevitable limitations. Here the method of experiment conies in.

The Japanese have multiplied to overflowing. We in New Zealand fill our prams in tardy fashion, and there is quite an amount of space in these islands. Whether or not you favour the proposal, there is an obvious possibility that the acceptance of an in vita tion to surplus Japanese to develop unused land might be to the advantage of both nations. For one reason

or another, however, you may doubt the wisdom of that proposal, or dislike it. You may think such migration would turn out badly for one or both parties. You may think, on tho other hand, that it would bo excellent business all round. Try it on a restricted experimental scale nnrl ascertain the result. Introduce a, limited number of not. too large Japaneso communities into New Zealand and let them show whether or not they can turn a few derelict patches into gardens. Bring in two or three groups of families, each group to contain several hundred people. Plan.the experiment with the help of appropriate advisers • sociologists medical men, and agriculturalists. Fore see snags as far .as may be, and be on the look-out for more. Adopt such safe guards as may be advisable. Watch and record results. Let it bo agreed that if things turn out ill, then the re turn half of a boatload of steamship tickets shall be utilised. After & couvenient time, by procedure defined in advance, let it be decided whether the colonies shall be repatriated, whether they shall remain without further influx, or whether additional immigrants shall join tho pioneers. New Zealand has been, and is, a great place for social, for human experimentation, whether or not Governments so describe their acts. The experiment now proposed would be in the same tradition, and as the Bishop has pointed out, people of diverse origin .already live here very happily side by side, and herein this Dominion contrasts pleasingly with some parts of the British Empire. The course suggested would be an experiment in the development of New Zealand, and an experimental contribution to the study of the pathetic problem of over-popula-tion in Asia. It would be an experiment also in the projiiotion of international harmony. If the times seem unpropitious, remember they aro apt to become still more so, and harmony the harder to establish. I have read the criticisms of the proposal of the Bishop of Waikato, anr£ suggest that the way to tackle this question is by experiment. Let the experiment be placed in the care of a

well-chosen commission. This commission would not bo charged to make Japanese immigration a success. Its function would be to plan and conduct an experiment, or group of ex-

pcriments, and afterward* to observe and measure the results and report impartially upon them, i Finally, one very specific proposal. Let the man invited to presido over this commission as its first chairman bo that distinguished experimental biologist and scientific humanist, upon ivhom I have in fact drawn freely in this essay, Julian Huxley,