LIMITED FAMILIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1939, Page 8

LIMITED FAMILIES

OBSERVATIONS BY LORD DAWSON OF PENN. Childless marriages, and what he described as "single-child sterility,” were condemned by Lord Dawson of Penn, who suggested that the State should assist parents of limited means, says the “Observer," London. “In the first few years of married life," he said, “the childless couple may have a good time, but thereafter lies before them a long vista of increasing unfulfilment. “The woman who intentionally ends her maternity with one child is contracting to her own hurt the kingdom which her body and mind were meant to possess and often learns her mistake too late."

Lord Dawson said that in 1933 100 mothers were producing only 76 future mothers. The proportion of youth to age in 1940 would be only two to one. and. if the present trend continued, by 1962 youth and age would have reached equality of numbers. To remedy it did not mean return to the high fertility of Victorian days. A moderate increase of births would serve the purpose, provided that we planned for quality of race.

“I put it forward that a family of four, wisely spaced, is a good family, that wherever possible no family should be less than three," he said. This statement is based on the interest of racial survival and strength. “Surely it is equally sound from the point of view of the family. Children make the home, and keep their parents young, while educating each other." The dominant cause of declining population was birth control, and the mistake of today was its extension toward the point of suppression. Lord Dawson suggested that the State grants might take the form of; weekly allowances, progressing with., each child up to a certain maximum, to | help maintenance and. above all. the | securing of good fe.cding. Housing ac-: commodation suitable for young families with easy access to the outer air and to nurseries and creches, should; be available at a rent within the means, of the parents.