GREAT BRITAIN'S POPULATION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XV, Issue 4723, 18 July 1890, Page 4

GREAT BRITAIN'S POPULATION.

According to tba latest official figures (says the London Standard) the population of the British Isles la now equal to that cf France. Tba number of people in this country is estimated by the Registrar General to amount In the middle of the year 1890 to ceirly 3S£ millions. More exactly, the subjects uf her Majesty in the old country number 38 227.000. while the population of Franca at the beginning of the year waa only 38,218.000, which is 9000 less than the British figures. The rate of growth of the Inhabitants of the United Kingdom is so much morel rapid than that of Frencbem that it b quite certain that in tbo present year 2890 this country will have passed Franco in point of population. The census which will be taken in April next year may confidently be expected to prove thai tho people of Great Britain and Ireland number nearly 39,000,000, which will bo some thousands ahead of France. The contrast b all the greater when we remember that until within the last decade the French bad always outnumbered us by several mfllloo*. Indeed, barely a century ago the number of Frenchmen in Franca was double the Dumber of Britons in the Mother Country. Such facts erosoggestire of very carious nflacllocs, and must scon command the attention of the statesman of the two countries. It most be remembered, too, that Franc* Is very much larger than the United Kingdom. The former covert 204,000 square miles, while the British Isle* together are only 120,000 square mlle», giving France an advantage of 83,000 aqoare miles in point of area. France, In other words, is nearly 70 per cent, bigger than the Unitsd Kingdom. While oor population I* tho* to rapidly Increasing on this small arte, there are two leaaons which statesmen will not fail to learn - first, that the Indiscriminate and unchecked immigration cf pauperised foreigner* Into this coontiy matt be stopped, and secondly, that we cannot afford to lose any territories in other pert* of the world that are suitable for colonisation by oor own surplus population.