IMPERIAL PAPERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2414, 14 June 1900, Page 65

IMPERIAL PAPERS.

(By R. N. Adams.)

No. IV.— POPULATION. The total population of the world may be classified in the following manner : — In Asia .. » 800,000,000 In Europe 350,000,000 In Africa 210,000,000 In America 110,000.000 Among the Islands .. .. 30,000,000 Eepresenting the race as 1,500,000,000 Of these the proportions dwelling under the rule of great nations are set down in figures as follows : British Empire .. 500,000,000 Chinese Empire .. .. .. 300,000,000 Bussian Empire 129,000,000 French Republic 77,000,000 United States 74,000,000 German Empire 62,000,000 Austro-Himgary .. .. .. 41,000,000 Holland 34,000,000 Turkish Empire 33,000,000 Italy - .. .. 30,000,000 lieaving a balance of 220 millions who are foreign or heathen to our great modern nations. Of the nine who rule the 1.250,000,000 Great Britain claims two-fifths more than China, her nearest competitor, while she presides over the destinies of nearly four times the number of Russia, who stands third on the list. And France, having fourth place, numbers less than a sixth of the population of the premier Empire. The following diagram contains 1500 squares. The population of the world is said to be about 1500 millions ; if, then, we take each square to represent 1,000,000, the diagram may be said to represent the inhabitants of the globe. The six divisions give a birds- eye view of the proportions of -the human race comprised in the six greater Governments. No. 7 shows all that is left in the control of all the other kingdoms, civilised or heathen.

ZM3 BRi riSH EMPIRE 3zej chinlse. '" ■* bes Russian H] UNITED STATES.

A writer in the Republique Francaise, a few years ago, drawing attention to the race for Empire, pointed out that at the end of the seventeenth century there were only three countries then considered as fairly in the contest, and they stood — France, Germany, England ; possessing respectively a pop-iilation of 1^,500,000, 19,000,000, and 8,000,000; England being placed a very poor third, Avith very little apparent hope of ever overtaking her neighbours : France having 38' per cent, of the population under her flag. In 1789 France possessed only 27 per cent.^ and in 1878 she had come down to only 14 per cent, of the population, of great nations; Russia having come upon the scene, os well as Austria, while Germany and England had both pressed forward in the contest. ' In the latter year the nations cotmted their citizens by these numbers — Russia 85 millions, Germany 43 millions, Austria 38 millions, France 37 millions, England 34 millions. But those figures only give the population of the citizens of each Empire in Europe, and therefore entirely fail to represent the true expansion of the races.

Nor does the comparison go far enough back to do justice to our Anglo-Saxon development. Four hundred years ago our flag floated over a nation of only four millions, with a country measuring less than 250,000 square miles. To-day that flag represents an extension of authority to an Empire of 50 millions of people more than all the powers of Europe combined. The British Empire stands now in the front of the race, with an advantage not far behind the whole population of the German Empire. For over a hundred years the children of Britain have been pouring out of their island home in millions, to all parts of the earth, so that you cannot enter a city of any importance but there you will find some of them taking a more or less active part in the life of- the place. It never will be known how much modern civilisation owes to Britons who have taken up their temporary residences in foreign countries. One thing that cannot be denied is that much of Russia's progress during the last two centuries is owing to what her statesmen have learned from the British.

Her army was modelled by a British officer, and some of her most famous victories were won by the strategy of British experts. Her navy was planned and organised by one of the- sons of Britain, and to the present day, some oi Kua&ia's lead-

ing families have the rich blood of their British ancestry lending vigour to their minds. In a degree, we have done for Russia what we are now doing among the Egyptians — we lent them men to put their house in order.

America is not merely the people of the pilgrim fathers : for our kinsmen, according to the flesh, born in our father's house, have, like a ceaseless river, kept up an imDi'oken stream of emigration, by which hundreds of thousands have been freighted across the Atlantic every year to augment the numbers of that great people who are now joining with us in the mission of canying blessings of all kinds to the oppressed of mankind, and stretching out the hand of fraternal goodwill to us, in face of an opposing world. America is indeed bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. We are two nations- of one people. Our origin is the same, and our destinies are identical.

In addition to this, our stock has supplied all our various colonies with people to such an extent that no catastrophe that would leave other people to possess their lands, could destroy the British race from the face <of the earth. The children of the [ blood in the colonies alone are at the pre- ; sent moment more numerous than the whole nation was two hundred years ago. Something of wliat this means may be gathered from the forecast of M. Kummer. Chief of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, which was published in The Times of 6th September, 1884. The calculation is made with the object »i showing what will be the result in the year a.d. 2000, on the basis of the statistical increase of the various European countries nome.d.

Thus, according to M. Kiimmer, England, starting fourth in 1871, is to come out second in 2000, more than doubling the gross of each of her two nearest neighbours ; while' Germany, getting the start of nearly two to one, comes out a little over five' to four. But here again the colonial population oi Britain is left out of the reckoning : and as during the same period, that was increasing at the rate of 25 per cent, the 10,000,000 of the colonies would raise the total by abotit another 140,000,000, which, including Scotland, would give the governing race of the Empire a population of 28^,000,000 by ths end of the period ; showing the whole of the States oi Europe named in the list combined, a comparatively short distance in advance of the British Empire's dominant people. But then, what of Britain's subject races? It should not be forgotten that these are being gradually absorbed into the prevailing race. They are not held as aliens, outside the rights end privileges of citizenship. They learn the language, adopt the customs, and become identified in manners, blended 'by intermarriage, and so become part and parcel of the consolidated Empire. Now, what, may be called our heathen population (not because of religion, but because of race) is in many parts as prolific as our own people. The population of India, for instance, is rapidly inci easing, in spite of the many checks to progress in this respect, it is subject to. So are the native people of several other places. This is not surprising. In the past they were the victims of many evils that prevented the increase of numbers. Every decade they were liable to some devastating tribal commotion, or foreign invasion, and to many other causes of a high death-rate. Much of that has been .stopped. Where war was the only profession of the men it has almost ceased to be known ; and deadly diseases have been very largely brought under control ; so that the mortality rate has diminished as domestic comforts have, improved, and with this the birth rate has increased.

It is, moreover, well known that nothing tends more directly and permanently to the physique of a people than the interchange of foieign blood, provided nothing is done to impair the constitutional vitality of the progeny. So long as the dominant race retains the vigour that draws the subordinate into unison with it, i;he process of absorption is > one of great advantage ; for while the weaker people disappear, it is not that they are lost, but that they have coalesced with a mightier, adding to its greatness a new strain of life, and a new power of achievement ; and in return receive all the rights, honours, and glories of their new environment. . The individuality of the absorbed people may be obliterated, but they have blended all that was good and fresh and stimulating with all the characteristic idiosyncracies of the race into which they have been united.

Not only, therefore, is our Empire gaining numerically by the growth of its subject races, but it is being impregnated by a principle of vitalisation. that goes a long way towards being a preservative against decay. Our race, like our language, is deriving new vigour from every other race, and fitting itself to control the world for the welfare of all other races.

A peculiarity of our people is their general love of contested games : man pitted against man, club against club, province against province ; wherever there is a genuine trial of human strength and skill, there will be seen the crowd of spectators, Ihe latter often becoming almost as excited c<s the contestants.

This proclivity i' 3 conspicuous from childhood. Often it begins with tap, fists used

upon schoolmates ; but it is common in the field sports, such as cricket and football, and is carried on in mature manhood by exercises such as bowls and golf outside, and chess or draughts indoors. The British spirit is never contented unless in some scene of rivalry, where he gains pleasure often as great on the loosing side as on the winning one.

While the youth of Continental nations are cooped up under the restraints of conscription, having their spirit Jaced into the shape of an automatic machine, that may be set in motion " only ,by authority, or permitted to rest by official command, as a part of a gigantic fighting instrument called an army, our British 3 r outh, wherever he is found, lias the freedom of life, and gives vent to his faculties in all the arts of fashionable and rustic games. He learns to obey, bub at the same time he learns to act. He discovers the responsibility of citizenship, the value of individuality. He learns to be one of many, directed by one intelligence, but he realises personality has its rights and its duties as well as its liberties, and that he is expected to display some amount or resource, ingenuity, and inventiveness.

All this the young man among us carries with him into any later sphere of action in which he may find himself. This endows him with that natural independence that fits him to make himself felt and recognised in any new situation- into which circumstances may throw him. This is the school from which spring forth those faculties that appear so unexpectedly when difficulties arise, and must be overcome if he is not to go to the wall before them.

The contesting of man with man, the resolution to employ every power of mind and muscle legitimately, to ■jain the purpose, together with the inbred love of fair play, and unselfish good will in the event of success falling to the opponent, breeds a manliness that enables a man to strive for the mastery, and not become .spiritless in the face of failure. He has learned to know that his opponent's success does not necessaiily disgrace him. He strives to win, but if the prize* is crrricd off by his antagonist, he knows that for the present he has met a man worthy of his admiration.

From this principle develops the gracefulness of a wise colonising class whose lot is cast among other races of men. It prevents the possibility of bending before inferiority, while it compels the recognition of what is noble and true and substantially powerful in any man or race of men, by whom it may be displayed. It is the soul of honour and the crown of manly glory to be true to the true, and resolute against the corrupt.

It is no cause for wonder, therefore, that the people of our race, since it belongs to a homeland so confined, and is, nevertheless, increasing as no other nation increases, should spread abroad into the countries of the earth, and there find habitations for themselves and their progeny among the heathen, and appropriate the lands that they have wantonly neglected ; nor is there any reason for wonder in the fact that, having thus scattered themselves over the surface of the globe among all classes 01 men in ail stages of savage and civilised life, they settle only where they can hoist their Empire's flag and administer their country's laws. No more is it surprising that those laws, framed and administered by such a people, should be the essence of honour and the bulwark of freedom ; and that they are recognised as defenr-e of the weak against the strong, the shield of the oppressed against the rod of tlie oppressor. If our race, which, of course, includes the United States of America, is not the " heir of the world," it stands a remarkably good chance of taking possession, and what it lays hold of it does not easily part with.

Country. Sw ifzei-land ... [fcily Fiance Bt-lemm Hull-.nd -c tlai d [rchllld Deun-ark Sweden . . \ : oi way ...I JTfJllliPy ft.iis-tiia Eiiinsa-y T3 I to S a 6 I 'S7O 80 IS7I-81 1872 S 1 !(•(>« Sd| 8(5 ' 70 1&7 -51 IS7I SI 187US1 1870-SO 1870-SO "565-75 IWI-80 1869-Sf' isei'-so o i l 2 6fi9,174 £6,801,154 ."P,10?.921 4 8-27,8 i:)! 3 579,5-9 i.',712 2(sfj 5,412.377) 1,794,7331 4,1^8,525 i,70 ,-irs n,t)fS,792i Co,K9ci,ti3oi 13,581,4</5! 157.5J6.658 %[ !i jir, jl la f^ 1^ | i 6-4 I 6,151,! 0! CO I 58.1-P.9 S 45 I d 189,400 I 9'B | 17 AU-i,'). 2 II "4 , 15,610,63:5 13-5 121), -76,145 107 | 13,25f),776 4 s+,5 + , 3,(^3,77d 9 9 i C.si'S,o!'s 0-1 , 13 C07, 1 9 L O'O ; :3.8,0.720 10-8 |164,(5'8,it7« 7-5 I 54,25)6,18S 1-1 | 1-ViWrMO — Total ... -