FRENCH BIRTH RATS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 28 July 1915, Page 3

FRENCH BIRTH RATS.

The dwindling birth-rate of France ia probably the gravest problem the Republic will have to face after the war. Many remedies have been proposed but none accepted as really satisfactory. The latest proposition is made by the deputy M. M. L. Breton, who has laid before the Chamber a bill embodying his ideas. M. Breton advocates a system of assurance, which every couple having already at least two children shou'Jd have the right to contract—under certain conditions and restrictions. The payment of an almost nominal premium would entitle the couple to receive from the State a sum of £l2 on the birth of their third child, besides an annual allowance of £9 12/ ; for the first year, £S for the second year, and £5 thereafter until the child reaches the ago of thirteen. The couple desir ing to enter into an assurance would have to pass a medical examination, in order to prove their freedom from any organic disease ilikely to be transmitted to their offspring. A fresh assurance could bo contracted after the birth of the third ehildt—indeed,, as often as the parents wished—but a fresh medical examination would be obligatory on each occasion. The i lea is, of course, that in addition to encouraging larger families the proposed law would operate automatically in improving the physique: of the race.