FILLING UP THE DOMINION

Southland Times, Issue 23208, 25 May 1937, Page 8

FILLING UP THE DOMINION

Migration Urged NEED FOR INCREASED BIRTH-RATE (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 24. The urgent need for an increased birth-rate in New Zealand and. the importance of filling the Dominion with Britons before some other nation filled it with other people were emphasized bv Mr Justice Callan, president of the Auckland Branch of the Royal Empire Society, who presided at the Empire Day dinner tonight. The comments were made in the course of proposing the toast of “The Empire and New Zealand.” Originally the toast he had been asked to propose was that of “New Zealand and the Empire, but ne considered that since the Dominion was really a member and the Empire the body, the order should be reversed. The chairman said that entitled him to ask whether New Zealand was as healthy as it ought to be, or as it could be. . “I speak subject to correction by experts, but I myself have always understood that in any living organism the requisite of good health is that there be a constant renewal of life,” he said. “That I believe to be the law of nature. Now it has recently been asserted that we are in some measure in rebellion against that law of nature.. If that be true then to the extent it is true New Zealand is not in good health, but in bad health. Upon such a topic and in such a place obviously I can say no more but, having been charged with proposing the health of New Zealand at this juncture I do not think I can say less. I think it would be both cowardly and hypocritical to do so. “I hope, and I hope earnestly, that in the near future as a sign of recovered health there may speedily appear and be steadily maintained a distinct increase in the flow of the best immigrants into New Zealand. For New Zealand the best immigrants are native-born New Zealanders.” There was another law of nature that might be remembered and it was that nature abhorred a vacuum; he said at a later stage of his address. “If we will not fill this country with Britons it is certain that sooner or later someone will fill it with some other kind of people, and that will be anything but pleasant.” ___________