POPULATION PROBLEMS.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17410, 24 May 1928, Page 3

POPULATION PROBLEMS.

IS INCREASE TOO FAST? LECTURE BY MR STEPHENS. The weekly gathering of the W.E.A. economics class under Mr F. B. Stephens, B. Com., had for its subject “Population.” The lecturer said the first analysis of 'the facts was undertaken by* a clergyman by the name of Malthus who lived from 1766 t‘o 1834. After a careful study of matters of social reform Malthus arrived at some startling conclusions which have since become famous. Briefly his thesis was that population has a greater power of increase than 'the means of subsistence. . Tbe natural result of such a conclusion was that there was no hope of social betterment and that wars, disease, infanticide were the means adopted by Providence to maintain the population within its food supply. His solution of the difficulty was the postponement of - the marriage age and in later editions of -the same essay he advocated voluntary restraint. The NeoMalthusians of to-day of course preach birth control. This essay quickly promoted discussion. The position at the time of writing was indeed terrible: The population of England had doubled in about 100 years. The Napoleonic wars had shut England off from Continental wheat. The wheat from the New World had not started to flow into England. Bad harvests in England, with the above factors, caused a great deal of suffering among the lower classes. What could be done? Malthus said “Lower the Population.” It was shown that increase in population takes place from two causes. First the natural increase that is the surplus of births ever deaths, and secondly by immigration. The number of births per marriage is largely determined by the age at marriage. The unskilled labourer receives the maximum wage at about 21, the skilled labourer, who has to pass through an apprenticeship and then act as a journeyman, does not receive a full wage till later, while the professional and middle classes -do not as a rule receive their maximum income lill the 'thirties. The result is that the unskilled marry earlier than the skilled, and the skilled than the professional and middle classes. As a consequence families in the lower classes tend to be larger than the middle-class families. Malthus’s prophecy has, during the past century, not been fulfilled. Population has grown enormously, and in general there has been a rise in the standard of living. Is tlhe theory then false? Will the population ultimately press upon its food resources? The new lands unknown to Malthus are practically producing to their maximum, means of transport have been wonderfully developed, and new methods, such as refrigeration, have aided to feed a growing population. But one factor which has been overlooked by those who prophesy starvation should the rate of increase continue is, that, “necessity is the mother of invention.” 'Large populations make the ■employment of large scale industry possible and make the use of patents now unusable on a**- ( count of the smallness of the market quite feasible. The class closed with a discussion >lO. Rua .urban drift and the general

conclusion arrived at was that whtl» there was an urban drift yet as to its economic consequences as distinguished from social effects, it was largely a. “bogey.”