The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1900. POPULATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 198, 21 August 1900, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1900. POPULATION.

for the cause that lacks asaiatanoe, For the -wrons that needs resistance, For the futures in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Several times during the present session of Parliament stress has been laid on the increase of the population of the colony. The prominence given the question is /ardly., we fear, warranted by statistics. Still, no one will deny that a regular and steady increase in our population is a necessity if our colony is to be developed, and that progress to be made that we may reasonably look for. How is that increase to be secured? From what source may we expect that growth in our population without which we must remain a few, and comparatively feeble, folk? Throughout the colonies there has been for a long time a game of give and take over the matter of population.. Four years ago a rush set in to Western' Australian fields. Every steamer leaving for Westralia carried a full complement of passengers. A decade ago we ourselves experienced a great loss in the number of persons who left New Zealand for Australia. Victoria has in turn been fleeced like a sheep. New South Wales, during the past year, has lost 6,532 by emigration, or persons who have left the colony in eXcess. of those who have arrived. By a comparison of the figures supplied by the colonies individually, it might be seen that when one loses, another gains, and vice versa. We are Convinced, however, that the most desirable kind of increase to our population is not to be gained at the expense of the depletion of sister colonies. Where, then, is it to come

from? There seems to be a strong feeling that it is not to come from a foreign source. And there seems to be no division of opinion concerning the inexpediency of bringing a number of penniless people from the Mother Land to settle in the colony. The proper and legitimate.increase of the population is from within, namely, in the lowest possible death rate, and in the most prolific birth rate. Upon these two points swing the most tremendous issues; they are points worthy of the most earnest consideration; and they indicate the direction in which either the greatest failure, or the greatest success will reach us as a people. Like ourselves, our neighbours in New South Wales have cause to congratulate' themselves on the diminution of their death rate. This is satisfactory. It is evidence that in two of the colonies at least the population is being maintained in one of the most to be desired ways. But when it comes to the increase by births, New South Wales confesses herself at fault. In the report of the^Department of Public Health, laicl before the New South Wales Legislature, we gather that "the mean annual birth rate for New South Wales for ten years ending 1897 was 32.61 per 1000 of the population." If we estimate that every 20 persons represent a family, the percentage stands at 32.61 for every 50 families, or an average of a fraction of one of increase to each family. Significant as this is, we are informed that the Board of Health referred to "noted with regret the continued fall in the mean annual birth rate" for 1898. A great outcry has been made in New South Wales over this matter, and yet in New Zealand our position is infinitely worse. In 1890, our birth rate was 29.41 per thousand. This is more than three per thousand lower than New South Wales, but it is favourable compared with the state of affairs developed in succeeding years. Since 1890 the birth rate fhas annually, and absolutely without an exception, steadily declined, till' in 1899 it reached the low figure of 25.12. The grave danger to the country this involves is emphasised when we take into consideration that whereas the marriage rate was 6.12 in 1890, it had risen to 7.28 in 1899. We do not wish to convey a wrong impression by suggesting that the increase has been a steady one. spread oV&r the ten years, but'the tendency has certainly been upward, and is so at the present time, while the fall in the birth rate in 1899 was one of the largest- for years. ■ The question of limitation of offspring is one that has been thoroughly discussed for a number of years past, and while unanimity of opinion is far from being arrived at, there are certain facts which are forced upon our cognizance. There was a time when one wrote, professedly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: "As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.'' At that time a woman measured the amount of favour the. Almighty showed her by the number of children she bore, and a barren woman considered herself disgraced. That time is no more: The tendency now is to consider disgrace has come with the increase of the family. -From time to time individuals come under the lash of the law in all our large cities for certain illegal operations; but the number of such cases that reach the daylight is but small compared with that which the world knows nothing of. There was a time when, acting under medical advice, preventative means Avould be used almost by stealth. Now means to prevent conception are discussed by matrons .in the presence- of un-. married ladies, while a.:la-r.sre 'trade is done everywhere in the disposal of accessories, to prevention-. Amongst the poor lar,sro families jnay be said to be the rule:• hut amongst those who are in. the best position to .train find educate their, offspring the birth rate is continually diminishing. These are facts which for the most part' we greatly deplore. Apart from the welfare of the State, thehappiness of the home is-involved; Medical men could many a tale unfold; and their testimony, generally, is that the greatest happiness is to be found in those homes where the old, and not the new, order, prevails. We are of opinion* that no remedy is' to be foimd by Governmental bribes, as-. employed in France. The instrument for effecting a change in the prevailing senti-, ment must be a moral one.- From the nature of- the problem it is exceedingly difficult to apply a remedy. jt "can only come through the eleVation of the" whole moral tone. We are given to understand that there is one branch of the Christian Church that deals very effectively with this matter, by refusing to give the Holy Communion to those who practice preventative means. When it is seen that much of -..shell conduct is an offence against health, against happiness, and against religion, an alteration may follow. We have, in view of. the . .evils that .our statistics plainly ' show" exist, not much reason to^congratulate ourselves 'oft the increase of our colonial population from 625,508 in 1890 to 756,505, in 1889. !