From Japan"

Fiji "Can Learn From Japan"

Fiji could learn a great deal from Japan and India on how to wage a battle against over population, The Fiji Times said in an editorial recently.

“This is no easy battle,” the paper said, “but there are few in Fiji more important, and the full resources of everybody concerned with the future hap piness and prosperity of the Colony should be ranged solidly behind every measure that can be employed, by Gov ernment or private organisa tions, to help win it.

“The time has long passed when the question of how to control the number and spac ing of children born should be regarded as something furtive and secret. Sufficient methods have been developed for any married couple to be able to choose at least one which will

be found acceptable, regardless of personal factors or religious or other beliefs.

“In Fiji, the need (for con trolling the rate of population growth) is very clear. Even now there are not enough jobs to go round. Thousands of children of large families have to go hungry or ill-clothed, and live in crowded slums.

“Every possible means should be used to let parents know that it is not necessary for them to have families of excessive size, and they should be told, in precise detail, how they can control both the num ber and spacing of their children.

“There is a vast amount of ignorance or inexact or in complete family planning knowledge in Fiji among the very people who are most con cerned and who would most likely take advantage of the knowledge if they had it.”