Page 2 Advertisements Column 4

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1770, 29 December 1917, Page 2

RA (TO-BUIRDIFG. LFCTURIXG on (lie above subject roc-onfly, Dr. IT, (!. Red ford, of Otago ITiivorsily, said that a very low fads avouM serve to impress Hie audience willi the gravity of the. question. Vast numbers of children were prevented from being born, and the decline of the birth-rate, Avhieh manifested itself everywhere as luxury advanced, menaced (he civilisation of the world, ft seemed that (he power to reproduce and to till the world with children was being lost. The birth-rate of New Zealand in 188(1 was 35.-10 per 1,000; in 1015 it had dropped to 25.33. In 1870 (he rale of natural increase was 31.10 per 1,000; in 1015 it was 10.27, a/id Avonld have fallen much more but for medical methods adopted. A't present great 'emphasis \vas laid upon “man power,” for if that of the Allies became exhausted before Germany's man-power, the Allies could not succeed. The natural rale of increase in Germany Avas 12.8 per 1,000, in Hungary 1.5.8, and in Austria 10.7, whereas on the Allies’ side, (he increase in Britain was 10.4, Belgium 7.8, and France nil. That meant, in a long Avar, that Germany could pljice a greater fresh army of young men in the held each year than could (be Allies. Russia, the only allied country with a great birth-rate, had fallen away. The people must be roused against: the methods used to arrest the birth of children. The scourge of social disease nut only depri\'ed man of his poAver, but the disease was handed down from generation to generation. Meningitis, blindness, every form of physical deformity sprang from venereal disease, apd all over the world children were dying from the scourge. The battle of life was bard enough, without the handicap of an inherited disease. It should be the ideal of the present generation that every child should he horn healthy and strong for the life struggle. There were Aery few poisons that could be handed doAvn to the coming generations, and the