THE FALLING BIRTHRATE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 16, 13 October 1917, Page 8

THE FALLING BIRTHRATE

Sir,—Your correspondent "Cato Jlajor'J in iris letter on "Knee Suicide" says: "Th.o grossly inequitable taxation of the necessaries of lite mid the exploitation of such necessaries tolerated by our statesmen are responsible for file lamentable pass to which tilings have come to (in this respect) in this Dominion." With, due respect to your correspondent, and while fully agreeing with his criticisms on taxation, etc., 1 cannot agree with hid ' T propterhoe" conclusions. Logically, if the margin of subsistence were enlarged either by an increase in wagea or a. decrease in the cost of living, population would increase. Is this true:-' 13 it noc » fact that the wealthy classes and upper middle classes are almost sterile? 1 contend that the love of ease and luxury, the dislike of being "bothered with children," coupled with the fact that the knowledge how to prevent having children is now so widespread, has much more to do with the appalling facts disclosed in the classification of the Second Division, than the contention of your correspondent. So long as the mother of many children, struggling in the midst of difficulties to bring up her family ia decency, is spoken of slightingly and con. temptuously in comparison with the wo* man who "lias the sense to have a good time oT it and won't be bothered with brats'—so long as the community brands with ignominy the parents of large families, and reserves the leading columns of the Press for accounts of young unmarried women's golf or tennis contests, so long,'in short, as it holds the main object in life is to "liave a good time and 'd n posterity," so long shall we see a railing birthrate. The root of the evil lies not in outside conditions, for if these were remedied or alleviated tomorrow the birthrate would still fall, but in the sloth and self-indulgence of the age. Its romedv lies within ourselves—to recoin delights and live, in la> ' Sorious days.—l am, etc., X. Ngaio, October 11, 1917.