NEW ZEALAND'S BIRTHRATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1919, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND'S BIRTHRATE.

(To the Editor,) Sir,—Anent some remarks by Sir Kider Haggard, appearing in your paper a few days ago on tlio subject of the declining birthrate, and .of liis asking for an appeal to the women to save tlio Empire, I would cravo the space to add a few notes 011 my view of the matter. I do not say that Sir Rider Huggard and others who have discussed the question In tlio same strain ore entirely off the track In appealing to the women, but I consider they are a little premature. They are at leust starting at the wrong end. Let us first get at the cause and root of those evils, uud then work forward. In the tirst place, we in New Zealand, ore sadly short of doctors. We are absolutely dependent on, say, about four doctors In a district where there ought to tfe ten. When a doctor is required, it generally means a wait of about two hours beforo he can be seen. Now we have some good doctors In New Plymouth, some of the best, but they are pressed lor time, and to see the look of one of them if asked to go tc the home of the principal party to see a maternity easo through one would think he had been asked to take an aeroplane to the top of Mt. Egmout for the occasion. 13e it only \Tirec or fqur miles out, of town they sffmptyt' have not the time to go, ro we end up by doing exactly as we are told. We go to a maternity place {I had almost said homo), and the doctor, he generally gets thore In time, but whether >he does or noi makes no difference to the paying out part of the programme. Ho trots in his little bill for £4 4s. What I want to know is, why are we so short? I would say, dangerously short of doctors? In England they are tumbling over one another looking for practice, and maternity cases are seen through for lHs and £l, and for this the mother is visited over a period of four weeks, wiicreas we here are visited if In town, three times, and if more than two miles out of town It H more likely to be once or twice, this extending over a period of two weekß. Does the British Medical Association refuse to alien? more thou & certain number of dectera

in each town here, or Is it the Government who is protecting them? As for maternity hospitals, wo have one or two training homes for girls (St. Helen's for instance), but these girls, so Jong as they have secured their certificates, are allowed to go out into the world and set up a maternity hospital of their own, where and under what conditions they choose; also they axe to charge, just exactly what fee they think fit, which just now in some of these places is in the vicinity of £4 per week, with extra for washing, and in some cases extra for a few other things. •Wo are absolutely at the mercy of these places, and I contend that If some sort of a limit be not put on tills habit of raising the fee every now and then as fancy dictates, the day is not far distant when only the very wealthy will bo able to enter them at all. Then again, the mother who has to leave three or four children a.t home is faced with a bill for, say, £3 for a housekeeper during her absence, and on top of all this expense the extra nourishment required by the mother during convalescence very often cannot be procured on the salary of tho ordinary wageearner or small farmer. Of course, Ido not mean to Infer that a maternity hospital any more than any other Institution should keeji to the one fixed feo regardless of the rise or fail in the cost of living, but I would suggest that they be run to a certain extent along tho same lines as tho educational system. They should at least be subject to the control of a Board of Governors wh<) would fix the feo from time to time, and they should also be subject to inspection as regards menu, cleanliness, and the management, generally.

Now on the top o£ all this wo aro' placidly asked why there are so many one child i families, and we are asked to make a general appeal to the women. I would prefer to appeal to the outer world to use a llttlo common sympathy, to think (or a moment, and not to add to the already hoary burden of the women the accusation of race suicide. I would prefer to blame the Government of New Zealand, past and present, and perhaps the British Medical Association, and give It the other name. It certainly Is alarming when one looks round upon the number of families boasting only one and two children, but under existing conditions we cannot blame the woman. She is not wont to alt with empty arms, but with the liaphasard way we have of dragging through with these vitally Important matters, the inevitable result will bo 'an empty cradle, or the bringing Into the world of a family of nervous and dispirited children. Ido not like, I assure you, to say that the woman who dares to have a family is being exploited, but I am afraid I cannot think of a word just now which more nearly flta the case.—l am, etc., MOTHER. Oct. 21, 1910.