AUSTRALIA’S “EMPTY SPACES”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 18 June 1936, Page 8

AUSTRALIA’S “EMPTY SPACES”

A LARGER POPULATION Australia’s ability to support a larger population was recently discussed by Dr. John White, ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland, in an article in the Glasgow “Herald.” He says :—-Western Australia is the largest of all the Statee in tire Commonwealth, but its population is less than 500,000. There is an area of nearly 1,000,000 square miles, which gives two square miles to every person. In Great Britain and the North of Ireland there are 468 persons to the square mile. We must not, however, be misled by these figures; one only requires to stay a few months in Australia to discover that many of the great spaces are empty because they are not capable of economic settlement. One authority lays it down that only as regards about “one-quarter of its area’ can Australia be described as at all a suitable region for close settlement- for the overcrowded millions of the British Isles.” There is, of course, com for a much larger population in tlie partially settled regions in the agricultural belt. If one takes the density of population as it is in the United States of America, there is space —apart from desert places—for nearly 20,000,000'; and if the condition of “saturation” of Europe be considered permissible, then 80,000,000 might be accommodated.