LOW BIRTH RATE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20731, 15 February 1939, Page 9

LOW BIRTH RATE

LESS DRUDGERY URGED CHEAP DOMESTIC APPLIANCES (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Tuesday Cheap electricity and cheap electrical domestic appliances were ! suggested as tending to cure the low | birth rate by Dr. W. H. L. Cumpston, I Director-General of Health for the i Commonwealth of Australia, speaking at the Wellington Travel Club’s reception to-day. “We have heard a lot about the decline of birth rate.” lie said. “We all italk about it and do nothing about it. It is time we stopped talking and considered just what is wrong. I suggest 'the obvious thing wrong at the moment is that, the mother is the hardest worked and least considered element in the community.” New Zealand had a great opportunity to change that, Dr. Cumpston added. Conditions for workers had been regulated, but the mother had to bear the drudgery of housework and bring up tiie child. One thing that might lie done in New Zealand with its cheap power was the provision of electrical household appliances very much ch'-nri'p than at present. If people wen» !o keep good conditions; for llmiisi-ivos they would have to give relief for the mother, relief from ■ drudgery, and the provision of a happy family life in which the mother could find pleasure. Enjoyment and change in the female side of life was necesIf these things were not done, concluded the speaker, the community would have to face a continued reduction in the birth rate, because it was nut possible for mothers to continue to bear the burden they carried to-day.