THREAT TO N.Z.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8832, 12 October 1942, Page 2

THREAT TO N.Z.

80,000 INDIANS IN FIJI AN OBVIOUS OUTCOME MORE IMMIGRATION URGED “In the-course of years we will have Indians claiming the right of British subjects to share this land of New Zealand and the Japanese, urged by economic pressure, will demand the right to live here too,” said Mr W. G. Mander, addressing the New Plymouth Rotary Club on the subject of “Fiji and its Relation-* ship to New Zealand.” Mr Mander traced the progress of the Indian occupation of Fiji. Indians were first brought there, he said, in order to provide cheap labour. From 1834 onwards a system of sending out indentured Indians to work on the plantations of Mauritius and the West Indies had developed and proved satisfactory and the Fiji planter* decided to adopt the system. The first shipload of Indians arrived in Fiji in 1879 and for many years further shiploads were brought into the colony. Free Passage A condition of the indenture ■ system was that after 10 years’ service an Indian had the right to a free passage back to India. At first many of the immigrants used this privilege, but later they preferred to remain in Fiji permanently. An increasing number of women were allowed in and as the second generation grew up and the pexes became more evenly balanced and, knowing only Fiji as their home, they lost their desire to return to India. The abandonment of the caste system was an added inducement to stay. “As the Indians now number over 80,000 compared with 5000 whites, you can readily see that if their demands for equal civil rights were granted they would easily control the whole political position,” stated Mr Mander . The Indians were refusing to remain merely the servant class of the nation, he said. They were a very fecund race and with the low death rate, due to the healthier conditions in Fiji, their numbers were rapidly increasing. As they increased they demanded a greater say in the Government of the country and there was no doubt that these demands would receive the full support of their people in India. Referring to the promises of the Allied Governments that after the war all barriers would be lowered, if not abolished, and that the peoples of the earth would be free to move and trade where they desired without restriction, Mr Mander asked how we should be able to keep Indians and Japanese out of New Zealand; Could we, he said, with pur large tracts of undeveloped land, say that although we were unable to use that land ourselves we were not going to this way lower our standard of living? Outcome Obvious “To me it seems obvious,” he said, “that in the course of the years New Zealand will have Indians claiming; the right of British subjects to share this land, and the Japanese, urged by economic pressure, demanding the right to live here. How are we going to prevent this invasion of our land and the overwhelming of our .race? Only by filling it up ourselves.”

This could only be done, continued the speaker, by the encouraged immigration of suitable peoples from Great Britain and Europe. In addition to this we would have to increase our own birth-rate to what it was 40 or 50 years ago, when families of six to 10 children were quite common and families of over 10 not unusual. Obviously our own stock was the best and everything should be done to encourage an increase inour birth-rate.

The speaker suggested that this could be done by assisting in the economic life of people with large families by providing taxation on a sliding scale, by making it illegal for any restriction being placed on people -on account of their having children, and by making the raising of children an honoured profession.