DOING HER PART

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12441, 8 May 1926, Page 4

DOING HER PART

NEW ZEALAND ASSISTS ENGLAND GROWTH OF EIGHTY YEARS SHADE OF ASIATIC MENACE Does the average New Zealander think —when people cry aloud for more and more population—to investigate figures which, when compared with those of sister Dominions, show that this country is doing its full share in the peopling of the Empire and relieving Great Britain of the tremendous burden which hangs heavily upon its shoulders? It remained for a visitor from Home —Sir Henry Lunn —to point this out to the people. This he did while being entertained by the New Zealand Club at luncheon yesterday. The growth of the Dominion sinxe the advent of the first steamer to Port Nicholson in 1840 he considered to be marvellous, and the density of the population to be extremely satisfactory. In Canada there were 21 people to the square mile, in Australia two to the square mile, while in New Zealand there were 131 to the square mile. If the non-usable land were excluded the density of New Zealand’s population Would be in the vicinity of 16 persons to the square mile. In 86 years this was a tremendous achievement. EVERYONE PROSPEROUS Sir Henry went on to dicuss the general prosperity which he had noticed in everv part of the Dominion he had visited'. It was hard 1 to believe, he said, tliat this country was twice the size of England. Everyone seemed to he prosperous. There were no poor people ta be seen; no children with bare feet, and no signs of slums. Everything in fact seemed to indicate that the wealth of the country was fairly evenly distributed-. These were things of which the New Zealander had reason to feel proud. The speaker was an ardent advocate of further immigration, and assured the gathering that there need he no fear of the class of people who would be sent from the slums of the Old

Country, for the people at Home were much of the same class. Migration of entire families, so that migrants of both sexes would settle here and relieve the congestion at Home, was the most desirable thing at the present time, and lie exhorted those in charge of the churches and religious organisations to do their best- to facilitate this worthy object. NO TARIFF WALLS “I find in the exports of yotur country,” he went on, “a striking indication of the-importance of strengthening in every way the bonds that unite tlie Mother Country and: the Dominions. In 1905 your total exports were approximately fifteen millions. Of this total twelve millions went to the United Kingdom. In twenty years this great sum had l advanced to the enormous* figure of 52 millions for tottal exports, of wliioh 42 millions were sent to the United Kingdom, and only three millions to the United States. “AVe havo no tariff walls against you in Great Britain, and every immigrant who lands on these shores. increases the commercial tie which hinds you to the markets of the Home Country. We wish to do all our business with our friends. ASIATIC MENACE “I have felt that in this country we have the British blood, purer and less contaminated than in any other of the Dominions which I have been privileged to visit, but it is right that we should recognise that the claim of the British race to hold these vast territories depcu.ls upon our doing our best to fill the vacant places. At the present time the power of Great Britain is relatively to other nations greater perhaps than ever before, but. the uncertainty of a great conflict such as th.at through which we have passed, and the possibility of great changes taking place in Aria when the teeming millions of that country may wish to find an outlet in the Southern Seas, makes it imperative that the present generation of Britons and the succeeding generation should do all that they can to people the unoccupied territories. i “Who knows when a great military leader might not arise and marshal these countless millions of people? URBAN AREAS INCREASE “There is another aspect of life in this land that I want to emphasise. 1 am rather troubled as I study your Official Year Book to find that the urban population is gaining ground on the rural population, and that whereas in 1881 proportions were roughly twothirds rural Rnd one-third urban, in 1925 the urban population in fourteen urban areas was more than half the total population of the country. “It is imperative that everything should be done to make life in rural districts more interesting, and the development of broadcasting on a large scale- which has linpiteiiod in England ought to tend ill this direction. If the country farmer can keep himself abreast with life in the towns hero, your statesmen's sneerhes, vour great j concerts, much will be done to mitigate I the loneliness of the country districts.’! I