FALLING BIRTH-RATE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 251, 4 August 1933, Page 3

FALLING BIRTH-RATE

COMPENSATING FACTOR. LESS INFANT MORTALITY. (Special to the " Guardian.") WELLINGTON, August 2. Although the birth-rate in the Dominion! has been falling in recent years, said the Hon. J. A. Young, Minister of Health, at the annual meeting of the Plunket Society yesterday, it was largely compensated for by the substantial reduction in the infantile death-rate. In the past year the deathrate in the first year of life had been 32.15 per 1000 births, whereas a quarter of a century ago it was 88 per JLOOO. The births last year totalled 24,824, a decrease of 1798 compared with the previous year. The first year of a child's life was the most critical, said the Minister, and the figures he had mentioned showed what splendid progress had been made in the last 25 years. The Plunket Society could claim a large Measure of credit for such an accomplishment, although there were other services co-operating to bring it about. The work-done justified them in going to the business and commercial houses 'far support, for no country in the world could produce such low deathrate figures in the first 12 months. The fall in the birth rate called for consideration, but the society was saying the lives of more babies than formerly, and that set off in some measure the loss. The work of the society was done voluntarily, and deserved every consideration and help.