POST-WAR IMMIGRATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24539, 23 March 1943, Page 2

POST-WAR IMMIGRATION

Replying at his press conference in Cairo to a question about increasing New Zealand's population by immigration after the war, the Minister of Defence answered that the question had not been considered. His suggestion that the Dominion would be the gainer from war marriages was palpably weak, as it is probable that New Zealand will lose as many husbands and wives to Britain and America as she draws from them. In any case, the effect on population will not be considerable. If the Government has not considered the population question, it is probably the only Government of a country with predominantly West European stock that has not pondered it anxiously. In every other country it is realised that the low birth-rate common among West European peoples threatens to undermine the foundations _of national security and social security. These rest on the shoulders of the active, adult population. They must provide for defence and pensions. Mr. Churchill spoke of the smaller proportion one growing ever smaller—of this class in Britain's population and of the increasing proportion of the aged. As the census of 1936 showed,, the trend in New Zealand is the same. The Official YearBook for 1938 noted that there must inevitably be fewer workers (and fewer of military age) in the years to come, and "more pensioners to support on the efforts of the fewer. If this trend cannot be corrected by raising the birth-rate, the only remedy remaining is to encourage the immigration of people with most of their working lives in front of them—a remedy that a Government committed to pensions at 60 cannot afford to neglect.