THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1908. THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9130, 1 July 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1908. THE DECLINING BIRTH-RATE.

If a declining birth-rate means the setting in of national decadence then Great Britain is on the down grade, and New Zealand —rii far cry to mention such a country in the same breath with Great Britain—is decaying before- she has blossomed. Among notably virile fighting nations a healthy and increasing birthrate has always been found. Perhaps in these days of modern science an exactly opposite condition will be proved to be a desirable state of affairs, but we may be pardoned for having our serious doubts upon the question. No nation or individual ever interfered either

permanently or successfully with ' the inimitable law of Nature—in- ! deed, if it were possible to inter- < fere with it, how could such a law < be described as inimitable? Neither : is Nature defied with impunity. , Those who break her laws must pay the penalty, and that penalty, always carefully exacted, is at times terribly severe. If we, as private individuals, or as a nation, are guilty of actions that tend to sap and destroy the true natural life of the nation, the life that is natural to some healthy, robust men and women, the inevitable peti- , alty is natural extinction. The shirking of duties that naturally devolve upon us means a desire on our part to live unnaturally in a natural world, and we thereby indicate as clearly as it is possible—we are one judge, jury and executioner—our utter unfitness to exist, for unless our existence is of assistance to others, unless wc perform the part that we were intended to take, we are manifestly better out of the way—in the interests of others! We recently received from the Registrar-General advance sheets of the vital statistics being compiled for the New Zealand Year Book, and these figures disclose facts in connection with the birthrate of which a great majority of people are no doubt quite ignorant. The average taken from the figures submitted for the ten years 1888-1827 is 4.51 births to'a marriage. Dealing similarly withf the figures for 1898—1907 the result is an average of 3.33, so that regarded annually or decennially there is a decided fall to be observed. In the Australian States a similar decrease is noticeable. New Zealand had in 1880 the highest birth-rate (40.78). In 190 C the case was reversed; but in 1906 the New Zealand rate was higher than that of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. The Registrar-General remarks that a declining birth-rate is noticeable in many civilised countries, and attention ha,s been drawn by statisticians and political economists to the serious consequences that may result. That fertility among ■ New Zealand womea is decreasing from whatever causes there is no doubt. Taking the. number of married women in New Zealand at what may be considered the child-bearing ages (i.e., from 15 to 45 years, inclusive) as shown by each census since 1878, and for the same years ■ the number of legitimate births (excluding plural) registered, the birth- , rate per 1,000 married women of the above-stated ages is easily found, and is shown to be steady declining. In 1873 the rate was 337 per 1,000, in 1896 it had fallen to 252, in 1901 to 244*; and in 1906 to 228; or, in ■ other words, in 1878 one married , woman of the ages specified in every : three gave birth to a child, while in [ 1906 the rate was less than one in ■ four. And another table is given, 1 showing for a period of twenty-five years the number of nvirried women at the quinquennial periods of age belonging to the full term 15 to 45 ' years, with the proportions that those ] numbers bear to every 100 married women living at 15-45. These pro- '. portions are found to have diminished appreciably at the earlier aees, 15-20 and 20-25; but the numbers of the ' living are much smaller at those ages ', than at the higher ones, 25-3" and onwards to 40-45, and the effect of this lesser number of wives at the lower ages in reducing the birth-rate would not be so much as might at first be thought probable. It is, however, undoubtedly a fact that to have a growing proportion of wives at the earlier productive ages is the bsst position, but it is not the one which obtains at present in New Zealand.