POPULATION STATISTICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21875, 10 August 1934, Page 10

POPULATION STATISTICS

Judged purely from the standpoint of statistics the quarterly estimates of population are of limited value? because it is not always possible to secure complementary figures which are clearly indicative of general tendencies. Nevertheless, they have a useful purpose in revealing to the thoughtful fundamental principles in national policy which must be closely associated with population facts. It cannot be too strongly emphasised that national indebtedness should be kept in strict proportion to the ability of the country to discharge interest obligations. Since the war the public debt burden per capita has more than doubled. Development expenditure has outrun production and population and with export restrictions menacing the country's industry there is more reason than ever for concern over the problem of bearing the financial burden. The North Island may find some pride in the figures published to-day showing that its population is increasing, while that of the South Island is decreasing, and also in the fact that for the first time its population has passed the million mark, but such local pride receives a sudden shock when it is realised that for the quarter the total rise in population was only 46, that there was actually a decrease in the European population of 330, the increase of the Maori people by 376 keeping the grand total just on the right side of the ledger. Compared with the figures for June last year the results are as follow: There has been an increase of 9475 in the North Island and 2117 in the South Island, giving an increase for the Dominion of 11,592. The European increase was 9860 and that of the Maoris 1732. No one who gives a moment's thought to the future of the country can.regard such a position as satisfactory, particularly when it is known that the conditions of the times tend to set the flow of migration in the wrong direction. Even allowing for abnormal movements of the kind —and at various periods in the country's history population has been lost in the same way—the country cannot accept the situation with equanimity. The birth-rate is low, assisted immigration has ceased and numbers of people who intended to become permanent residents are showing an inclination to drift away. All this means a check to what would have been normal development in trade and production and in expansion of national revenue. Thus a tight hand must be kept upon national commitments.