THE CARE-FREE BACHELOR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3038, 27 March 1917, Page 3

THE CARE-FREE BACHELOR

TAXATION AND 'fflE FAMILY ALAN. Attention was drawn to the numerical disproportion betweon marriageable men and marriageable women at a women's conference on race and sex problems held at Birmingham recently .initiated by the National Council of Public Morals (states the "Daily News"). It was suggested that steps ought to be taken to adjust the' balance by a redistribution of jur population as between tho colonies ana the M.oiber Country. Miss Beatrice Webb, Ml)., brought census statistics in snppoit of her contention that the decline birthrate was not explained! by over-feed-ing or over-intellectual or physical development. ."University women who had taken honours degrees wero found to have had a larger number of ch'ldren than their sisters and cousins j .who, presumably, were slightly less intellectual. '

The records of a .hundred families in tho Peerage showed that the average number of'children per family declined from seven in 1830. to three in 1890. In the case of maternity claims on the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society decreased from 247 per 1000 in 1880 to 117 twenty-five years later. The Peerage, the 'intellectuals, and the wage-earners had all Khown tho same drop. The genuinely ■ Roman Catholic countries were the only exceptions to -the rule of a falling birth-rate among the nations. .That was intentional limitation was indisputable, and one of tho. reasons was increased materialism. •

Miss Cecilo Matheson said no one could have ■ worked long in the slums without being impressed' with fhe reed of lowering the birth-rate in certsin districts. The high infantile jmortali{.y was partly causfed by overburdening the worlnng-class mother. As to the evils of limited families elsewhere, 'she thought the most cause was a desire to give the children born a better start m life. Marriage should be made easier and motherhood safer. Miss Matheson declared that bachelors and spinsters ought to be taxed on a higher scale than the married man.