DECLINING BIRTHRATE.
“MENACING AND SERIOUS.” DR. TRUBY KING’S OPINION. Discussing the decline in the birth-rate following the announcement that the rate in Wellington for the month of April had shown a fall of 25 per cent, compared with the previous months of this year, Dr. Truby King said that the birth-rate, not only in Wellington, but all over New Zealand, was steadily going down. There was no doubt about that, but it was important to ascertain what was the birth-rate per thousand of population. As the Government Statistician’s figures were not yet available it was not possible to give the birth-rate per 1000 of the population, but on a comparative basis tn® April figures were 28 per cent, below the average for the preceding three months, 24 per cent, below the average for 1921, and over 30 per cent, below 1920.
The birth-rates for urban areas in the last five years were as follows: —
‘■'New Zealand’s birth-rate before the war, and, in fact, until 1917, was 26 per 1000,” continued Dr. Truby King, “which is not much beyond the maintenance figure. The safety line is regarded as 30 per 1000, and the maintenance line 20 per 1000. It is generally recognised that, so far as the birth-rate is concerned, France was the most decadent nation before the war. with a birth-rate of 19 per 1000, which during the war fell to 9 or 10 per 1000, and America’s low rate is only maintained by the high figures among the immigrants from Central Europe. “In 1885 New Zealand’s birth-rate was 35 per 1000, and it was not until 1890 that it fell below 30. It is generally held that a young country should maintain a birth-rate of 30 per 1000, and the progressive fall toward the mere maintenance rate is menacing and serious. As Mr. Malcolm Fraser says, ‘Good times mean plenty of marriages; but bad times mean a slump in marriages,’ and, of course, a subsequent decline in birth-rates.”
1917 24.1 per 1000 1918 . 21.8 per 1000 1919 .... 20.5 per 1000 1920 23.4 per 1000 1921 21.3 per 1000
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Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1922, Page 8
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349DECLINING BIRTHRATE. Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1922, Page 8
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