France's Strength.

Southland Times, Issue 12007, 30 March 1892, Page 3

France's Strength.

The French census returns for 1891, which have but just made their appearance in Paris, are worth studying in these colonies, j because they throw some light upon the qnestion of the concentration or distribution of population in regard to the economic wel- j fare And prosperity of a country. France is divided into eighty-seven departments or counties, and these, excluding the fifty-six I towns or cities, each containing 30,000 people j and upwards, number 38,343,192 souls, j while the populous places just referred to comprehend no more than 6,862,822 persons. Paris itself, admittedly the most attractive capital in Europe, and containing a very j large foreign population, permanent and transitory, holds less than 2,500,000 people, or not much more than five per cent, of the entire inhabitants of France. In Melbourne and its suburbs are concentrated, roughly speaking, 40 per cent, of the gross population of the colony ; and it has Deen a standing complaint for years past that the operations of husbandry are everywhere hampered and straitened owing to an inadequate supply of labour. France is certainly the most prosperous nation on the continent of Europe, and her prosperity is largely attributable to the fact that considerably more than 80 per cent, of her population is either Bettled on the soil, or engaged in rural industries which are connected with its cultivation. These classes contributed the greater part of the enormous Bum demanded from France as indemnity by Germany in 1871 ; they have since lost, according to the French newspapers, L 120,000,000 sterling by the Panama Canal, and by a host of bubble companies which were floated during a period of financial inflation ; but they have nevertheless depositn representing eighty millions Sterling in the savings banks besides large amounts privately locked Op _. a practice which still prevails among the more ignorant, timid, and mistrustful of the French peasantry. And as often as the French Government wishes to raise a loan, there are tens of thousands of eager applicants for inscribed rentes to the extent of LlO and upwards. There are no meetings of the unemployed and no strikes in rural France. When they do occur, it is generally at Lyons, Lille, ' Roubaix, St. Etienne, Rouen, or some other 1 congested place in which protected manufactures are carried on; and the strength, the stability, and wealth of France rest upon the solid foundation of her rural industries. If ! we are wise we shall imitate her example; and endeavour, by every means in our power, to decentralise our population and " scatter plenty o'er a Bmiling land."—Argus (Mcl-