The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1910. THE WHITE PERIL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 170, 26 July 1910, Page 4

The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1910. THE WHITE PERIL.

Mr Tregear's nobly-worded verses, which we republish in another column from the New Zealand Times of Saturday last, deserve, as they will doubtless receive, widespread publicity and the gravest attention. The Secretary for.Labor is a thoughtful and earnest; student of social and industrial! problems, and so far as the birthrate, decline affects industry ha may be regarded as an undoubted authority. His dream of Tartar dog 3 invading New Zealand, the "Menace of Asia," as he terms it, is hardly, however, to our mind, of such serioua import as are the moral land medical phases of the question. Regarded strictly from a moral and religious point of view, any deliberate interference with the natural law as it affects human conception and generation must be denounced as an evil of very grave import to the community. To meddle with, to thwart or obstruct, the.operation of a natural law is a most perilous proceeding, and yet there cannot be the slightest doubt that the decline in the natural birthrate is due to causes outside Nature and is the result of deliberate intention to limit families. But it seems to us that no good can be done by merely denouncing, however eloquently, an evil which everybody recognises exists to a terrible extent in the Dominion—as it does, also, throughout the Australian States,;

and making no effort bo discover the real causes for this deliberate inter- i ference with the .natural laws of : < human generation which is going on ] all around us. Why should there be ' this widespread determination on the ;• part of married people to limit the , number of their children? Surely it t should be possible for students or J sociology to penetrate the mystery, : if it be really a, mystery, with which ~ ' this awkward and delicate, but mi- ■ mensely important question, is sur- , ; rounded. Various courses have been ; suggested. It has been said that the : limitation.:rof families is largely due to the increased cost of living, especi- ' ally m the larger centres of popula- ■ tion. Another suggested cause js a . growing tendency on the parfT or * parents selfishly to indulge in various ( forms of sport and pleasure, partici- ; pation in which might not be possible ; had they more children to oar© tor. ; Yet again, we have heard it said thai;, the difficulty—real or alleged—of ob- j taining domestic servants induces ohe j determination of many wives to re- t fuse the burdens, responsibilities, and j heavily-increased domestic duties | which fall upon them as a result of j maternity. Widespread irreligion has, also been put forward as a cause. It! is not for us to-day to attempt any i detailed examination .of \ the various! reasons, actual or imaginary, which are said to be the chief factors in contributing to a state of affairs so eloquently deplored by Mr Tregear, ! so inimical, if not speedily altered, to j the future welfare^ may, indeed, to ' the very existence of the Dominion, j Parliament often devotes a day to the > discussing of what might be called', abstract questions of a sociological \ character. It might very well spend a whole week in discussing the birthrate problem. No matter how wise our laws, no matter how honest and capable our legislators, no matter aught and everything else, so long as our population does not show that increase which, were there no interference with Nature, it should and would exhibit, then are we doomed to decline as a nation. Peril is here! is here! Here in the Childless Land, Life sits high in the Chair of Fools, twisting her ropes of sand; Here the lisping of babes and cooing of mothers cease; Here.the Man and the Woman fail, and only the flocks increase. Eloquent, stirring, dramatic lines are these of Mr Tregear, and they should go right home to the hearts of both Parliament and people.