Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1909. RACE SUICIDE.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4483, 2 November 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2,1909. RACE SUICIDE.

This above all —to thine oven self be true, And it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

Cablegrams from Sydney inform us that the Congregational Union has resolved to fall into line with other churches in earnestly appealing to the manhood and womanhood of the State against the repudiation of parenthood. The Rev. Campbell declared that there was definite information that as regarded raoe suicide the State was pretty well as bad as decaying Trance.

The deplorable state it has come to in France is fully disclosed in Edmond Demoliu’s book Anglo-Saxon Superiority. In a recent issue we showed that tie Presbyterian Church had taken up a definite and praiseworthy stand respecting this subject, and we know that both Anglican and the Roman Catholic Churches, especially the latter, are giving very emphatic teaching against the wicked and unpatriotic practice of raoe suicide. When we find the greatest branches of the Church Catholic taking up a hostile attitude against any practice and systematically giving very serious warnings againsts its impolicy and wickedness, it is high time for the newspaper press to examine the subject and pronounce itself in no uncertain way. It

must express itself so clearly that he that rnnneth in a hurry may read and understand, as well as the man of leisure in his easy chair. Leaving out of view for the moment the question of infanticide, let us consider that of foeticide. Foeticide, or murder by abortion, is a crime on which the Roman Catholic Church has pronounced her sentence with all the solemnity and seriousness of her high, weighty, and responsible position. She has declared “ that the destruction of the human foetus in the womb of the mother, at any period from the first instant of conception, is a heinous crime, equal, at least in guilt, to that of murder. Bhe has taught in a roost definite and impressive way, which no one can misunderstand, the evil and the crime or such action. This evil is more widespread, appalling, and deplorable in its private and national consequences than many persons imagine, and it is contended that it is very much less practiced amongst Roman Catholics than amongst Protestants, owing to the very strict teaching and supervision of the Catholic Church. Fortunately the other churches are waking up and speaking out about the question. The Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion, held at Lambeth in July j and August last year dealt with this subject. Artificial iestiiction of population has had its demoralising and devastating effect on English-speaking people once the most fertile of races. The report, comparing the birth-rate of 1894-8 with 1874—8 showed that the decrease in Norway was 4 per cent., in France 14 per cent, in the United Kingdom 15 per cent, and if _ Scotland and Ireland be excluded, it is 17 per cent, the greatest of any European country. British dominions beyond seas are shewing a decline. In Australia in 1886 marriage fertility Was represented by 339, tut had fallen to 235 in 1901. In New Zealand the birth-rate fell from 37 in 1882 to 25 in 1900. In Canada, with the exception of the French population, there has been a serious decline. Things have improved in New Zealand. In 1906 the New Zealand birth-rate was higher than in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, but still there is too great an infringement of the laws ot nature. Our political stability is still threatened. The writings of Rev. Alfred Young (priest of the congregation of St. Paul the Apostle, New York) published under authority, give startling details of this great national evil. One cannot but feel that if the German Emperor sets such a high value upon the birth-rate that he publicly announces that he will stand Godfather to every eighth child bom into a German home, there is great political value attaching to population. Of course theie is. In the coming days of storm and stress that nation with the most numerous, virile, and disciplined population will rule the puny, less numerous #nd less strenuous peoples. Our wisdom in Npw Zealand, and throughout British Dominions, is to so. improve the conditions of . Iffe that mothers and fathers will welcome l&rge families as the Jews of old did. A numerous and vigorous population is a nation’s most priceless living and effective capital. The fostering of home life and the removal of taxes . from necessaries of life is the truest policy of sound statesmanship.