THE BLESSINGS OF A FAMILY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 169, 5 June 1940, Page 4

THE BLESSINGS OF A FAMILY

"POPULATE or Perish'' reads an arresting leader caption in a recent metropolitan daily, and the ensuing article proceeded to deal exhaustively with data which showed that the population trend in New Zealand was directed towards a very serious decline. It made most interesting reading and as -if to add to our present woes, presented the picture of the overcrowded Oriental countries casting hungry eyes towards the islands of the Pacific. But it is interesting to note by a slight process of analysis the warm (?) encouragement given to the founders and would-be founders of .families -in this country. Does the average person in Whakatane (apart from those who have already have had the experience) realise the heavy burden of expense and responsibility which is the common lot of every home-maker with a family. Compared with the childless couple the figures for provisions alone make the former look ridiculous,, yet to hear many of these people talk one would imagine that they were the hardest used in the world. Most of them, by the way of comparison with the man struggling to feed, clothe and educate a young family, simply do not know they are born. A recent complaint that their milk bill now cost them half a crown a week was voiced by a young couple, who were confounded beyond words when those they were •In conversation with, laughingly replied that with their three children, the family milk bill was never less than four times that amount. This is merely an example of what the home founders of this country have to face. Every rise •in food prices, bread, flour,, vegetables, fruit, meat; every rise in clothing, footwear, household linen and utensils, hits the familied home just three or four times as hard as it does the childless household. In this way alone, the familied man by way of direct taxation, is a gia,nt compared with the man who in spite of his absence of children pays the full rated income tax. But this is not all. The family budget is not limited to the home. When a little entertainment is desired, it is not merely mother and father who pay for admission but the purse must extend over each of the little ones. The unencumbered pair who stroll to the pictures, the play, the show, or to an athletic meeting do not usually recognise this.. Unfortunately the official attitude towards children in this country is again, not a very encouraging one. How often have advertisements for houses to rent, read "no children permitted!'' Generally landlords have a horror of children, but the worst case of intolerance was the attitude of a district farmer, who stipulated that his sharemilkers were to have no children on the place, and had no qualms in dismissing the unhappy couple when the innocent little life presented itself. Strange to say,, this farmer himself had a family of five. And so the urgent cry for population goes up, mainly from those who themselves have not accepted the responsibilities they so freely" urge upon others. Perhaps it is the selfishness of these modern times which has made the world so intolerant of its little ones —the founders and citizens of the world of tomorrow. Perhaps it is the pursuit of pleasure which tends to make, childless marriages the ideal, small families the fashion and large ones the laughing stock. The riddle remains unanswered to all except the mothers themselves who in their hearts of hearts nurse an evergrowing tide of love and joy without which they could' not live, but in possession of which they are rich beyond compare.