King Country Chronicle Saturday, August 13, 1910 TOPICS OF THE DAY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 285, 13 August 1910, Page 2

King Country Chronicle Saturday, August 13, 1910 TOPICS OF THE DAY.

That was a stirring poem Mr Tregear contributed to the "New Zealand Times" the other day. The birth-rate is not, perhaps, a poetical subject in itself, but in the hands of a master it can be made the object of a patriotic appeal which needs to be listened to if we are not to perish from the face of the earth. In 1876 the birth-rate was 41 per cent thousand. In 1906 it was 27 per 1000, and 14,000 fewer chiK dren are being born in New Zealand each year than in proportion to the rate of thirty years ago. What are the causes? Is it luxury, high rents, irregular employment, or heavy expenses, disinclination to bear children, or distaste for family life? A multitude of naswers to the question have been given, and yet the birth-rate does not recover. Possibly the proposed State assistance to prospective parents, and the national annuities promised, may do something to stop the decline. But assuredly, unless we have population we shall fail to hold our own in the race for civilisation.

"Menace of Asia? Nay. Over the Orient Sea Rank upon rank of pitiless eyes watch us unceasingly; Patient, stolid, immutable; quiet as passionless Why should they leap at our rides' mouths who have olny to crouch and wait?"

So writes Mr Tregear, and he writes of what he knows.

Tokanui, lying between Te Puhi and Kihikihi, is to be the scene of an important experiment in prison reform work ? which all who have faith in the effects of the humane and scientific

treatment of the criminal will heartily I wish may be successful. This new prison farm adjoins the block of land acquired for the future site of the mental hospital. The farm is of one thousand acres of second-class land, and much labour will be required to improve it. In the coining summer gangs of prisoners will be employed on the ground roadmaking and building. A training in air branches of farm ing, including sheep-farming, dairying and cropping is to be given. The scheme is an admirable one. Instead of the old, bad, punitive methods of treating the wrong-doer, we are now to have a disciplined system tending to reform the prisoner, and help him to regain a position in social life. Good conduct and industry is to be paid for by crediting the prisoner with marks having a definite money value. If he has a wife and children the money earned will go to help to support them. There is much that is admirable in this newer way of dealing with an old trouble, and Dr Findlay deserves our thanks for elaborating the scheme. With the indeterminate sentence and training in useful trades, the prospect for the brighter future of the criminal classes is hopeful indeed.