THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1931. THE BRITISH CENSUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20922, 11 July 1931, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1931. THE BRITISH CENSUS.

There has been particular interest in the British census of this year because of the existing economic conditions. They have been abnormal ; not unprecedented, but sufficiently unusual to give population statistics a special character. One of them is the check recently given to emigration, because of the depressed state of industry and commerce in lands to which Britain has customarily sent emigrants. The Secretary of State'for the Dominions has announced that the tide of migration has for the first time turned from the Dominions to the United Kingdom, although he has been unable to say how many of those entering from other parts of the Empire have been returning migrants. This one feature alone makes the figures significant. They betoken an increase of pressuro on the resources of the Homeland, and it is obvious that, unless there be soon a resumption of flow the other way, the problem of unemployment in Britain will become even more difficult of solution than it has been. Takirig as a basis the figures of density, usually presented as the number of persons to the square mile, the situation arouses serious thought. England and Wales, usually taken together as a census area, had at the time of the previous census, in 1921, a density of 649 to the square mile, whereas the census taken in April last reveals a density of 685. This is a large increase on what was before a very high figure. The average density in Europe is 126, by far the highest figure when continental areas are considered, being more than twice that of all Asia and far in excess of all other averages over sitch areas. In Europe, Belgium led in 1920 with 635, the total figures for Great Britain showing 482 in 1921, but the density of England and Wales taken together far exceeded that of Belgium. An average addition of 36 to the square mile is a very steep increase. How large this addition is can be visualised by noting that an increase of 36 to the square mile would add 3,708,000 to the population of New Zealand. In England and Wales, with' an area of 58,324 square miles—the area of this Dominion, exclusive of the Chatham Islands and outlying dependencies, is 103,043 square miles —it means an increase, since the census taken ten years ago, of over 2,062,000. In the early years of the decade there was a considerable outward flow of migrants—not so great as in the period immediately preceding the World War, but still a very appreciable exodus; in 1923 it reached its maximum for the decade, 199,000. This comparatively high figure was due to a pronounced emigration of British people to the United States, in view of what was known of the forthcoming restriction of immigration there by alteration of the national quotas. Leaving out that exceptional experience, occasioned thus, the flow was mainly to other British lands—British North Amei'ica, Australia, New Zealand, British South Africa, India and Ceylon receiving, the migrants in that order as to numbers, as a ride. As it is not to be expected that this outward movement will be resumed until economic conditions are more favourable in the outer countries of the Empire, Britain must reconcile herself for a while to the marked increase of density. It is notable particularly in five centres: the region known as Greater London; that part of Lancashire which includes Manchester and Liverpool; Northumberland, with its focus at Newcastle ; the West Riding of Yorkshire round Leeds and Sheffield; and the Midlands, about Birmingham. The fact that this is an urban density both increases the difficulty of finding employment in languishing secondary industries and reduces the prospect of sending the surplus to Dominions mainly engaged in primary production. A census, it is to be remembered, raises questions rather than answers them. In itself it is little more than a snapshot record of facts in the aggregate, and even the multiplying of the personal inquiries on which it is. based can do no more than provide data for the expert study involved in deductions. Vital statistics, in their several ways, have to be taken in conjunction with such tables as a census gives. Birth rate and death rate, themselves general in character, call for use. Here it is to be noted that the British census reveals a continuance of movements prevalent in recent years: both the birth rate and the death rate are still diminishing. The former has reached its lowest point since 1881, there being a very considerable fall after 1875, the year that ended a steady rise throughout the first three quarters of last century. The fall in the death rate has not been so marked, yet it shows, especially in the diminished mortality among infants, how great have been the recent triumphs of medical science and the improvements in personal and social hygiene. It is apparent that the nattjral increase of population in Britain—the birth rate minus the death rate—is moving toward stability; yet, as the present figures show, there is still an increase, and an increase that will heavily tax resources and statesmanship until an outward distributing of population becomes again a practicable policy.

UNIVERSAL CONTRIBUTION. The Unemployment Amendment Bill has passed its final stages in the House of Representatives with the principle of universal contribution to the relief funds from every class of income—money earned on puroly relief work alone excepted—left unimpaired. The Labour members who tried to have lower incomes exempted were not moved when the Prime Minister reminded them that these represented the people most likely to derive benefit from the relief system! A little earlier they had demanded the exemption of women from all the taxation on the ground that women stood to obtain no relief under the Act. The inconsistency of . the two attitudes does not seem to have struck any of them. Considering the heat with which some Labour members charged the other sections of the House with brutality and callousness for refusing to support their amendments, it is interesting to consider suggestions for unemployment relief taxation made in Great Britain by the General Council of the Trades Union Conference. Giving evidence before the Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance, that body advocated universal contribution from every class of income, without exception, that from wage-earners to be deducted weekly at the source. The. official memorandum put before the Commission contained this significant passage: "The nation is fighting for its industrial life and the whole position should, therefore, be treated as a national emergency. . . . The emergency should.be met by a special unemployment levy on all incomes, whether from earnings or from interest and profit. In this way the community as a whole would contribute its quota to the maintenance of the unemployed." The scheme as applicable to British conditions was open to criticism, as was speedily shown, because the scale of levy suggested was far from sufficient to meet the known needs of the unemployed. Yet, as it happened, the levy suggested by the Trades Union Conference on incomes of from £250 downwards was approximately as against the threepence levied here—and no exemptions whatsoever were suggested. The council also suggested that universal contribution would mean a universal right to relief, if it was needed, with the obvious corollary that no contribution meant no right to relief. That these principles should be urged by the greatest Labour organisation in the country which has had more experience than any other of systematic unemployment relief is a fact deserving study by the Labour politicians of New Zealand.