The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 30. A GRAVE PROBLEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 69, 30 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JUNE 30. A GRAVE PROBLEM.

The ideas of nations, like those of individuals, undergo extraordinary changes. Yesterday, so. to speak, the theory of Mai thus swept through all populous countries, and the natural increase of mankind was accepted as a great evil. The theory that the problem of poverty might be definitely solved if there were fewer people to eat the food supply made nations regard excess of births over deaths with alarm. Scientists have not yet satisfactorily explained whether the productivity of a people rises and falls, or whether, once the decrease is manifested, it simply goes on until a people are destroyed. Statesmen nowadays are seized with the vast importance of a larger birth-rate than a death,rate. It means national safety, virility, vitality, health, naturalness. Statesmen, too, regard the decrease in the birth-rate as a curable evil, assuming that the productivity of the-people is as great as ever. One has a perfect right to doubt this. Nature, in her multiplication of any species, frequently deliberately halts. Every person who has studied the infinite marvels of procreation in animal or plant life knows this. The decreases in the baby-supply <of the civilised world is attributed to the greater strain of existence and the cost of living, yet the civilised nations were never richer —in spots. Comfort is not widely diffused, but it cannot be proved that luxury and ease ever increased the productivity of the people enjoying it. The decaying nations are those which have attained the highest degree of unnaturalness. A false estimate of life induces lack of instinct and atrophy of,, function.. It is impossible to revive a dying race with bonuses. Such a system might help in some cases, but as a spur to fertility it is obviously as sensible as infusing blood into a woodwj leg and expecting it to hop. The problem of over-population when the civilised countries contained about half the numbers of people who now live in them—was considered to be a most serious one. The most serious problem the majority of these nations now face is the decline of births. Theorists point out the amazing fertility of some unfit, and the theory is sound. Nature kills by long drawn oui elimination—a little at at time. Statesmen assume the fit are fertile, and that money inducement may lead to increase of people. Maybe, maybe not. In Europe the birthrate is lower in the centres of popula-'-tion than/in the cities. In New Zealand and (Australia, where the problem, must be faced, just as it is being faced in France, the same thing occurs, although obviously there should be less fear of motherhood than in the backblocks. General accusations are of no service in dealing with the decline. It is impossible with perfect certainty to tell whether the decline is,due to refusal or inability .""ThTs The average family is small— j but there is a family; and as New Zealand must have population, if New Zealand is to remain British and successful, the State has promised i to do something to induce increase of 'children. France is the world's example of rapid decline in the birth-rate. France is frightened that she will become a second-class nation if something is not done not only to increase the natural supply of babies, but to preserve those that are born alive. For many years, from the time that the problem became acute, there have been wonderful things done for babies in France. The State welcomes babies, and asks no questions. Anybody's baby may some day kill an enemy of the Republic. That is the national standpoint. ■ Everywhere in France the necessity of creches has arisen. The unfitness of the race—or a portion of it—is shown by the fact that unnatural feeding is necessary. No one is to blame. It is simply a matter of or devolution, or whatever me cares to call it. But, quite apart from looking after the small babysupply she has, France which once owed its military pre-eminence to the i vitality of its men, and consequently to the good mothering of its women—is going to penalise people who do not produce their 'kind. This is as far as any State has gone in its eager efforts at I the solution of the gravest problem. [Germany's: birth-rate is enormously greater than that of France. In 1907 f,he excess of deaths over births in France was twenty .thousand. Is that airy reason for France to fear Germany? Statesmen, medical men, and eminent folk of every kind have suggested many rnethods for augmenting the birth-rate, . from giving large bonuses to mothers for each child after the first, to taxing people who have *no children and refusing to give a Civil Service appointment to any person without three children. Some of the suggestions are not without absurdity. Although decline in the birth-rate of crowded European wantries may be regarded as a natural consequence of the nations' general physical decay, it is extraordinary that the problem has crossed the water, and that New Zealand and Australia must share the anxiety felt by France. It is to be hoped that, as Nature works in cycles and on tlie plan of "either a feast or a famine," that she will later revivify the people, and thafc her bounties will be so large that another Malthus will arise to mourn at the over-population of the earth. One fact: There is no decline of the birth-rate among Asiatic peoples, , and there is no apparent general physical decay among colored peoples who live their own life uninterfered with by the whites. And the biggest problem of all —supposing the new cycle does not arrive—will be solved when the virility of the dark races opposes the atrophy of the white. I ' ' '

CURRENT TOPICS SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY. New Zealand is very well off for holidays, as any person having business to do with the banks will admit. Even apart from statutory and compulsory holidays, there is a very creditable national disposition to work hard and to play hard, to enjoy the gifts the gods send, and throw cares to the winds. For many years the public have not been able to agree as to the general weekly half-holiday. A few years since, ■an attempt was made to induce shopj keepers close their shops on Saturday , afternoon and evening, but since iSaturj day has been for many generations the festival day of the British people—anil this is copied world wide—there was no general disposition to continue the novelty of gloomy streets and unpeopled emporiums. To the average person, there is no day so convenient as Saturday for temporary cessation 'from work. If his week is chopped in half on Wednesday or Thursday, the holiday lacks much of its attractiveness and physical benefit. If he ceases work at noon on Saturday and is not expected to take up the daily grind until Monday, he does so refreshed and invigorated. But this fact remains. By long custom Saturday night is the people's shopping night. Custom mokes the end of the week '-pay-day." People not only desire to "shop" on 'Saturday night, but in every town in the Empire, by long use, the folks know that they may indulge the very natural desire Uor meeting. 'Any crowd is useful. There .is nothing so interesting to man as man—or woman; and there is nothing so interesting to woman as man. If by legislation the habit c? ages is suddenly ordered to change, if ,no work of any kind is done from twelVe noon of Saturday until Monday motaing, the people will not at once reconcile themselves to the innovation. The \ general public wants a holiday on Saturday afternoon, but it wants the shopkeeper to work, and the town to be liveW and for the people to congregate. Buf all the same, institutions are not always valuable because of their age, and (jiere seems to be no reason why we-shoud continue to look .upon Saturday niglC in the same way that the people of the' fourteenth century did. If the day for the halfholiday is optional, there ijs always much jealousy. If cessation jof work were compulsory there could ;be no advantage. Holiday-making cannot be made entirely compulsory or Universal. For instance, even though Saturday becomes a compulsory half-holiday, we suppose actors will be allowed to ivork, and that even though shops are cjosed some articles will Ibe purehaseabh from licensed victuallers, and that engiijemen will continue to toil and sailors t» proceed with their labor. But a Sabbath gloom in the streets on Saturday night would go fl small way in the matter !>f reform, and the .people would get used to it in timei Russia has 198 compulsory holidays in ! the year, but Russian holijlay legislation ! will not be introduced in! New Zealand I this session. |

THE COTTON CRiMES,

In the course of a few remarks on the cotton ,crime that stirred America and the North of England a frw weeks ago, we mentioned that the fonly .possible way for England to .becc-nt independent •<4 America and its cottk criminals, wa£ to grow her own ccjLi- At the pr*sent time only a few [T the great mills in the North of EngMd could be kejjt going with cotton <M,ined from oth|er countries than Aißica. But the Empire contains so mK land and so imany climates that evH thread of cotton required by BritaiMcould be grown in British iniNew South Wales, wiAVn eye for the possibilities of. a grejHTtton market for: Aiisti'aPiay-iws-'grlMi good cotton, The English experts To examined it said that it was/as go</Pa sample as American cotton of the sqlme class. New Zealand could snuggle coroortably away in the Northern Territoly, and could' lose herself a. dozen timk in the, big island continent. The Commonwealth is empty—comparatively spiking. Tens of millions of acres lie idfe. With men and rain and money, Australia could supply enough cotton tojfeed all the mills in Christendom. Hc>e is the reason why the Empire should grow its own cotton. Patten, the finious—or infamous—millionaire speculator, cornered the whole available supplf? at the end of last year. EverybodyUiad to give Patten his , price, which |as tenpence. He unloaded the lot, anc made much money. Patten and the other gentle- 1 men, who desire to operaja again now that there is a shortage q supply, are restrained from doing so. Owing, however, to the transactions if last year, j the position in t.he Old Couitry is acute, so that American millionaires will be the direct cause, of the distress that.will ' result in England duringj the coming winter. In instituting n<Jv industries the colonies are often hinpered for capital, and the average rjpm will fervently hope that, should!the (Empire take to growing all its tMtoiv in us own territory, the fiat wi>l go! forth: "No American millionairesiieed apply"