Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-10-25
ONLY 1S2 YEARS.
Until the World will be Entirely PeO-
 pied---Startling Calculations.
From the Pall:Mall Gazette.


 At the meeting yesterday there was joint assembly of the geographical and economic sections, to consider the subject of the iands of the globe still available for European settlement. The audience con sisted of a proportion of quite seven eighths of ladies. Sir Lambert Playfair dwelt upon the importance of the sub ject, especially after the official inquiry held in London upon the question of colonization, which showed that many old fields of emigration were being closed to European emigrant3 MT. b. G. Raven stein produced an elaborate set of statis- tics to show that the world will. in the ordinary course of things, be fully in habited in about 1S2 years. which esti- mate considerably extends the period at which some learned men believe human ity will be crowded out. Having previous ly swept away the Arctic and Antarctic regions as not being essential for his ar gument, he parceled the remainder out of the earth into: Cultivable land, 2S,469,- 900 square miles; steppe, scrub, poor grass, etc, l3,OOl ,O00 square miles; barren des- serts. 1, lSO,0O0 miles-a total of 46,350,000 square miles. The population living upon tlis he reckons at a little over l. .467 ,000,- 000 divided thus: Europe, 360, 100000;
 
 much lower estimate than most people compute) Australia, 4,730,000; North America, 69,250,0G0; South America, 36,- 50OO0O
 Mir. Ravenstein showed how. supposing the standard of life among the various peoples to remain the same, supposing the population increases at the rate of s per cent in every decade. and supposing there are no extraordinary improvements in agriculture, the population of the world in the year 2072 will be 5994 mil lions. In speaking of the populations that these areas would bear (mentioning 207 individuals to the square mile as a fair average) he suggested that the pro ductiveness of the earth might be better utilized when people understood economy. In expressing general opinion that tropi- cal countries are not fit for Europeans, he granted exceptions to the rule, us, for ex- ample, in certain now well known high lands of Africa One of the theories pro pounded is that there is a gradual migra- ton of people southwards, so that in time race of European origin may arise who will be acclimated in the tropics. On the whole, Mir. Ravenstein does not despair that the world will be overpopulated, be- cause as new developments occur new adaptations VIII be fOund to meet them. The Rev John Mackenzie expressed the opinion that the Zambesi will all in course of time, be suitable for European residents Mir. J. W. Wells. who has travelled 5000 miles in Argentina and Brazil, thought that there is every pros pect of vast system of rail and fuvial communications all over the country The sum total of the discussion. so far, was an assurance that there are plenty of places in the world fit for population; that there is a demand for population all over the world, and that we need not particu- larly worry ourselves as to whether the globe will be over populated in genera tions to come MT. John Coles, of tie Geographical Society and travelling editor of the Field, later added that he had vel | low fever in Brazil, and seen a fever in the high plateaux of British Colum- bia that was very like it. He had known malarial fever produced by irrigation in new countries, and he warned his hearers l that many of the lands in the far West of North America which were represented as available for emigrants were made hope lessly unavailable by the extortionate de- mands of speculative land sharks