PEOPLING URGED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19692, 26 July 1938, Page 5

PEOPLING URGED

LANDS OF DOMINION SETTLERS FROM JAPAN LIMITED NUMBER ONLY. HAWAII MAN’S ADVICE (Per Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, this day. "To allow 5,000,000 Japanese to come to this country, as has been suggested recently, would be suicidal for the white population of New Zealand, but I do think there are excellent opportunities for controlled immigration by Japanese. If 200,000 Japanese were allowed to enter tne country they would do great work in '.developing the Dominion.’ This opinion was given by Dr. H. B. Cooper, of Honolulu, a member of a party of tourists which arrived at Invercargill last night, during an extensive tour of the South Island. - Dr..-Cooper said that the experience in Hawaii, where there was a big Japanese population, was that the Japanese were an industrious and taw-abiding race. They were remarkably successful as agricultural workers and would successfully undertake cropping on land which Europeans would reject as useless. “I cannot see much future for New Zealand unless the population is very substantially increased,” he said. “On our tour we have covered great distances that are only very sparsely populated, and it d oes not seem likely that the white population in -these areas will ever increase very much. Production From Land “If a limited number of Japanese were allowed into the country, they would make a living and produce something from that land. They would produpe revenue for the Government and help to make the country more prosperous.” Dr. Cooper said that New Zealanders need not fear that, within a few generations, the Japanese population would have increased to such an extent that they would over-run the country and supersede the Europeans. In Hawaii the size of the Japanese families had shown a tendency to decline, and it was probable that this trend would become even more noticeable in the future. Admitting that he had had little opportunity during the last month to see the best farming land of New Zealand, Dr. Cooper said he had no doubt that the best land was being farmed very efficiently. There was, however, great scope for the development of outlying areas which were at present idle and not populated. Only an industrious native race was likely to undertake this work successfully, for there was an increasing desire among Europeans in all parts of the world to live in cities. Of the native races available, the Japanese offered the best prospects.