AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1917, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

FEVERISH RUSH FOR SHELLS. ■ £IAXIMUM SPEED ORDERED. Received Jan. 30, 5.5 p.m. London, January 29. Von Groiter lias ordered the maximum speed to be maintained at the German munition works, and has mercilessly cloied dowfl other industries, refusing to hear any protests, declaring that the army lias no time to argue, but must have shells. EFFECT OF LACK OF COAU t Paris, .Tan. 29. The Zurich correspondent of l'.e Petit Pnrisien states that 23 Berlin schoois fejve been closed cwing to lack of coal. : A SERMON" TO ORDER. New York, Jan. 29., The Berlin correspondent of the Unified fress reports that, at the Cathedral service on the Kaiser's birthday, in the reading of the Lord's Prayer empl.uri-: was put on the phrase "Give lis this diy our daily bread." Court Chaplain Dryander, in his st-r----jnon, said: "Bafore us is the decisive battle requiring the greatest sacrifice. We neither willed nor wanted this war. The Kaiser has extended the hand of peace, but, with unprecedented frivolity and insults', our enemies have slapped tha hand. To sudi enemies tliere is only cno voice—the crash of cannon. Goj Cannot permit- the Germans to go down." The service was attended by royal.y, the highest 'nobles, officials and diplomats, BIRTHRATE IN GERMANY. ''extraordinary declines. • , Extraordinary declines in the birthrate in Germany and Austria arc chronicled in a recent issue of the German 'Social Science Journal . The compiler «.f the figures, Dr. H. Fehlinger, states that from July, 1014, till December, 1915, the population of Berlin (not reckoning the suburbs) decreased from 2,K>3 <; 302 to From the statistics quoted in various newspapers it appears that the number of females increased from 1,075,549 to 1,092,088, but that of males declined from 077,753 to 743,006. During tflie period from May to December, 1914, 25,089 births CMiirred, which number decreased to 19.213, or by 25 1 per 'cent., in the same period of 1915 The numbers who uied before they liad reached the age af twelve months declined j during 1915 in comparison with 1914 in ■ about the saine degree as the number of births. In 1914 15,970 men and 1.5,247 women died in Berlin, against respectively 14,829 and 14,951 in 1915, a decline of respectively 7 and 1.9 per ' cent. In Munich the number of births during May to December diminished from 8337 in 1914 to 60SS in 1915, or by 27 per cent. Of every 1099 children bom 147 died within the first year in 1914 end 148 in 191-3. The total number of deaths declined from 9G-23 to 9384. In 1914 4912 men and -lull -women died, a«4 in 1915 respectively 3SCt and 4520. Similar phenomena are noticed in Dresden and Hamburg. In Dresden the number of births decreased from 15.440 to 10,189, or by 34 per cent.; that of deaths from 9235 to 8171. The paper adds that conditions are much worse in Austria. Whilst up till October, 1913, the birth-rate exceeded the death-rate in the above-mentioned German towns, the position was just the reverse in Vienna. The number of births decreased from 9036 in January, 1915, lo 1983 in December, 1915. Every month e> that year the number of deaths waj ■larger than that of births. In PragiN the" birth-rate declined as much as 44 per cent, in 1915, in comparison witli A 914.