RECORD LOW BIRTH-RATE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 14

RECORD LOW BIRTH-RATE

INCREASE OF ILLEGITIMACY EXHIBITION AFTERMATH Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day. The total births in the Dominion in 1926 were 28,473, and the rate, 21.05 per thousand, is the lowest ever recorded. The births, while 320 more than in 1920, are 36 fewer than in ]916, in spite of an increase of nearly a-quarter of a million in population. There were 358 cases of twins and two of triplets. The number of illegitimate births 1332 V to a i 479 nSld i rab i e inc rea.se—from 1332 to 1473. As figures were much arger in the latter half and particularly the last quarter of the year this increase is connected by the comniw tfon tati3tiCS with the Tiunedin Exhibi-

ls . P roba bly only natural to exthe report says, “that as the birth-rate falls, the proportion illegitimate -to total births will i n ™ se a J Nevertheless it is unsatisfactory and somewhat disquieting to rlachL tha the thiS proportion in 1926 reached the unprecedentedly high fays 6 jL’ 7 per ce nt., no fewer than 1,473 of the 28,473 births during the year being illegitimate. The previous highest rates, in recent years at least mT Tel corded, but the proportion of cases monta« a °Jl iW !T as born within seven months after the marriage of its usual.'* was considerably higher than