IMMIGRATION URGED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19132, 29 September 1936, Page 5

IMMIGRATION URGED

AUSTRALIA’S NEED •‘7OOO PERSONS A YEAR” SYDNEY, Sept. 19. Dr. It. B. Madgwick, lecturer in economics at. the Sydney University, said last night that to prevent a decline in the population of Australia after 1977, and to keep it constant, an immigration of 7000 persons a year would be required for the next 40 wars.

These figures, Dr. .Madgwick said, were the result of research by Mr. S. 11. Wolstenholme at the university. They were based on the birth rate for the years 1932 to 1954, and showed that, without immigration, the population in 1977 would be 7,875.000, after whidh it. would begin to decline.

The prosperity of Australia seemed to depend on a steady but continuous policy of immigration, h was obvious that, because of world marketing conditions, primary industry in the near future could not be" expected to absorb many more people.

For secondary industry as a whole, Dr. Madgwick sakk-i.mniigration’ in the near future would appear to be. desirable. Unemployment figures indicated that by the end of 1936, .New South Wales would have reached full normal employment. This did not mean that there would be no unemployment, for modern industry made perhaps 6 per cent or 8 per cent of unemployment unavoidable.

In tertiary industry (education, health, entertainment, and similar services) there seemed every likelihood of expansion, requiring immigration during the next few years. Dr. Madgwick’s conclusion was that Australia should be able to absorb a few thousands of immigrants from Great Britain each year, but, he said, money would have to be borrowed.