POPULATION PROBLEM

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 69, Issue 6009, 18 October 1944, Page 6

POPULATION PROBLEM

AUSTRALIA’S REALISTIC APPROACH EXAMPLE' TO NEW ZEALAND ' 1 • “Australia’s realistic approach to the problem presented by its declining birthrate might well serve as an object lesson to New Zealand,” said Mr J. M. A. Hott, interviewed in Wellington recently. Mr Hott, who is second vice-president of Rotary International, recently returned from a visit to Australia, Apt comment on the subject had been made by members of the British Parliamentary Delegation, he said. Mr W. H. Butcher had declared that the problem would have to be faced quickly if Australia was to have both peace and prosperity, and the Earl of Listowel urged that Australia should make up its mind and form a definite’ immigration policy. Their remarks could be applied with equal force to New Zealand, said Mr Hott. There was in Australia an awakened public consciousness of the dangers ahead, a general acknowledgment that natural increase alone could not be expected to provide the solution and a realisation that suitable immigrants would have to be sought “with the keenness with which our forefathers prospected for gold,” as one writer put it.

Speaking in February, 1943, Mr Churchill said: “The falling birthrate threatens in 30 years to make Britain a country where a smaller working and fighting population will have to support and protect nearly twice as many old people.” For that reason it was not expected that there would be ony great enthusiasm in official or business quarters in Britain for mass transfers of Britons to Australia or anywhere else. Nevertheless, private investigations revealed that many British people, mainly single young men and women and married folk with young families, did hope and plan to seek their fortunes overseas after the war. There would be keen competition for them from Canada, South Africa, and Rhodesia, as well as from Australia and New Zealand.

However, there were also hundreds of thousands of suitable migrants in Europe—Norwegian, Slovak, Hungarian, and Yugoslav peasants, all hardworking, modest, naturally intelligent people. The difficulty in their case was lack of money. It had been suggested that, in order to secure them, Australia should abolish the landing money and establish Government farms to take care of the newcomers for the first few months, where they could learn basic English, the customs and the conditions of their new country. They should then be given advice and help to start farming or directed to a trade where they were needed.

In order to advertise Australia to both tourists and prospective immigrants, the Australian Government was already sending experts overseas to lecture on the picturesque and attractive aspects of the life of the nation. That example could well be followed by'New Zealand, said Mr Hott.

It was significant that a Labour member of the Australian House of Representatives, Mr Williams, had recently declared that Australian trades unions would have to revise their attitude toward immigration, describing as “unfortunate” their former view that the bringing of more people into the country would cause unemployment and affect the rate of wages. Mr Williams advocated the immediate overhaul of the Commonwealth immigration policy. Incidentally, said Mr Hott, Australia was appointing a new chief migration officer at a salary of £784, rising to £856. Australia had also shown keen interest in the proposal that it should offer a permanent home to British war orphans. Though it had been reported that Britain would not allow orphans who had -lost both parents to leave home till they were of age to make a choice for themselves, negotiations were still continuing, according to an announcement made by the Prime Minister, Mr Curtin. Possibilities of securing some of the 27,000 Greek orphans in the Middle East and some of the many orphans of Malta, which had a population of three to the acre, compared with Australia’s one to 300 acres, were also being investigated. “It appears obvious that unless New Zealand acts quickly it will be outstripped in the race to secure what’ immigrants are available in the early period of post-war reconstruction,” said Mr Ilott.