FALLING BIRTH-RATE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 238, 5 July 1944, Page 4

FALLING BIRTH-RATE

Need For Better LivingConditions (By Telegraph.-Press Association.) HAMILTON. July -1. In the course of his sermon at tho special service inaugurating tho seventh Svnod of lhe diocese of Waikato, the Rev. 11. W. lieslip, vicar of Stratford, referred to the declining birtlhratc throughout the Dominion, and claimed that one of the prime causes was lack of housing. I’eople could bring up families in overcrowded quarters. Im snijl. and asked was the Church interested in providing, or helping to provide, better living conditions. I’eople simply could not get homes and that, he felt, was contributing to tlie awful crime of abortion. He liad been assured, he said, that 30 cases of abortion were treated every week in the Auckland hospitals, if that were true, and it: were true that most of the eases were of septic abort ion. it was a fair computation to state that perhaps 300 abortions were brought about every week in the Auckland neighbourhood, for probably only one-tenth of lhe abortions could be classed as .septic, and those were (lie eases that went to hospital. II was a staggering state of affairs. Thousands of young women, and even girls, were running a risk of incurring venereal disease, and they were also risking the lives of others. Something must be done, and be called upon all Christian-minded people to .help in putting a stop to the cviL