Land, Food, and Over-Population

Mauritius Times – 71 Years

Editorial

The Minister of Lands, Town, and Country Planning has given notice of two amendment bills related to the disposal of Crown and Pas Géométriques lands, which will be discussed during the forthcoming session of the Legislative Council. Mr Mohamed’s bills are designed to regularize the sale of government lands, and what is more important, these bills seek to stabilize the selling price of government lands. Considering the past scandalous way of disposing of government lands, Mr Mohamed’s move is laudable. It is understandable that he should have a law to avoid government lands being sold at lower prices than what they would normally fetch.

However, we would like to warn the Minister against what we consider to be a short-sighted policy. We find it difficult to agree with the present policy of selling these lands to the highest bidders at a time when there are so many people who are homeless and landless. Those who are homeless and who have a piece of land can easily get a house either from the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund Committee or from the Government’s own housing authorities. But what about those who are homeless and landless? Since the government is going to fix a minimum price for its lands, why should not these lands be sold or given on long-term lease to the landless people? Those who buy campement sites or plots of Crown lands are usually people who already have land and who are well-off. We think that opportunities and facilities should be given to those who are in greater need.

Apart from the lands for housing purposes, the Ministry of Lands and the Ministry of Agriculture should put heads together and evolve a plan to make available lands for cultivation purposes. There is a large section of the population who would like to grow foodstuffs on a large scale, but land is not available, or water is a problem. This is the weakest point in our planning, and it must be remedied. Our problem is a three-fold one: land, food, and overpopulation.

The problem of food and population is not peculiar to Mauritius alone. It is exercising the ablest brains of the world. Recently it was discussed by leading scientists at Cardiff at the British Association’s annual meeting. What are the facts? And how do the scientists view the problem? The deliberations at Cardiff cannot be without significance to Mauritius.

Every day, the scientists reckon, 180,000 children are born, and only about half that number of people die. So, there are 90,000 more mouths to feed every day. The world population is 2,900 million, and at the present rate of increase, it will be 6,000 million by the year 2000. It is calculated that half an acre of good arable land is necessary to sustain a man, a woman, or a child at a reasonable standard of living, and there are only 2,600 million acres in the world suitable for food production. Is mass starvation inevitable? All the scientists have expressed concern at the grim situation. In a sense, it is science that has produced the present problem. Modern medicine has reduced the death rate without affecting the birth rate, and the scientists thought it their duty to find remedies for the difficulty they have caused in a world that is already underfed in a large proportion.

Some of the great brains who participated in the discussion were: Professor D. V. Glass, Sir Charles Darwin, grandson of the eminent 19th-century scientist, Professor P. Sargant Florence, Dr Norman Wright, Dr H. D. Kay, Sir Alexander Fleck, F.R.S., Professor P. M. S. Blackett of London University, Sir George Thomson F.R.S., Professor Dudley Stamp, and Professor W. Arthur Lewis.

The yearly increase of the world’s population is roughly equal to the population of Britain, asserted the President, Sir George Thomson. In his introductory address, he stressed the necessity of the “voluntary restriction of births to match the falling death rate.”

Dr Wright, deputy director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, held that at least half the world’s population was today either undernourished or malnourished. “It is conceivable,” he said, “that such increases could be met if world production merely adheres to its present slow trend. Clearly, far more drastic measures will be essential.” “In countries that had known undernutrition varying from wartime food shortages to semi-starvation, people had shown irritability, depression, apathy, and lack of coherent and creative thought. Those characteristics had been observed along with loss of weight and lethargy. In extreme instances, such symptoms led to a loss of moral standards and social ties,” declared Dr Wright.

Perhaps the strongest advocate of birth control was Professor Sargant Florence of Birmingham. “President Eisenhower sends no money to any country where it might help birth control clinics,” he said. “This is something we should struggle against. It is a crime against humanity. The United Nations should not be prevented from educating in birth control.”

Dr Dudley Stamp stressed the importance of the need for the planned use of land resources. Even if the present world population remained stationary, the problem of planning the best use of land would be difficult. In Mauritius, the problem of overpopulation is very acute. It is an accepted fact that a fair proportion of the population suffers from malnutrition. Anemia is rampant and made worse by too close pregnancies. Unemployment is rife, and hospitals and schools are crowded. We have to adopt realistic attitudes and not rest content with imagining solutions all based on assumptions that will not materialize. We feel that the Archbishop of Canterbury is right when he says that it is a Christian’s duty prayerfully and conscientiously to plan one’s family.

While we discuss and try to impose one’s views upon the others, time is running short, and soon it will be too late.

7th Year – No 317
Friday 23rd September, 1960

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