STATISTICS OF WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 240, 7 October 1916, Page 14

STATISTICS OF WAR.

INFLUENCE ON POPULATION. BIRTH, MARRIAGE, AND DEATH KATES. : (By JAMES J. WALSH, MJX, Ph. D.) In epite of some rather pessimisftic , propliecies as to the very unfortunate effect which this war was to have upon the population of Europe by depleting it of its beet young Wood, there are some very interesting .vital statistics from practically all the warring countries , which contradict many of the worst por- : tents. The facts that have teen gathered —by various government bureaus serve to show how well "human nature reacts favourably even against the most ■ serious, physical conditions. The recent , report of the Registrar-General for England and Wales is especially significant in this regard, 'though it only confirms • in detail reports, of', similar character , from other countries at war. It illustrates the moral aspects of nature's many compensations for the' physical defects and losses of life. INCREASE ES" THE MARRIAGE HATE. Probably the most notable featnre of the latest Registrar-General's report ia a distinct increase in the marriage rate during the last two years- The marriage Tate had been 'going down for years in England, and the first part of 1914 indicated that that decrease wae to be maintained for that .year also. Then came the war, with a prompt rise in. the rate, which continued to be felt till the end of the year, so that the marriage rate was the highest recorded since 1907. There was actually about one more marriage to every thousand of population than the average marriage rate of the decade from 1901-1910. During 1914, as a consequence of this increase, very nearly sixteen persons out. of every thousand of population entered the marriage state. WAR'S CONTINUING EFFECT. It might weH be , thought that this notable increase in the marriage rate in Great Britain commencing just after the outbreak: of hostilities; making that year the, banner marriage .year of .■'the twentieth century in England and' Wales up to that time, was only the result of troops leaving, causing the anticipation of many marriages which would otherwise have been delayed so as to fall into the subsequent year's statistics. This would be only robbing Peter to pay Paul then, and the subsequent year's" statistics might be expected to show a distinct decline even below the constantly decreasing figures of recent years. .Mars and Cupid seem to have much more close relationship to each other than merely the enforced rapprochement of the early part of the war, when impending but as ' yet apparently . distant marriages were brought to a head, for the marriage rate of England and Wales has continued high all during the progress of the war. The English Registrar General's formal report for 1915 is not yet available, but he has published the provisional figures, which show a further rise of 3:5 per thousand; that is4o say, pejCEons oj s every;, 1915 than in 1914, and the total number of marriages was a~ record for the country. .->■:— - '•:■;;■.-.;;::.■■ r^:FEWER UNMARRIED WOMEN, j The women in Great Britain, as indeed in ail civilised countries, greatly outnumber the men. At the beginning of the war the registrar estimates that out of a total of almost exactly thirtyseven millions of people in England and Wales there were slightly more than nineteen millions of females and. somewhat less than eighteen millions of males. There was an. actual excess of females of a little more than one million two hundred thousand. The improvement in sanitary, affairs in recent -years has preserved many more females to the child-bearing and marrying age than before. In the last four decades ,this factor has added one in a hundred Ito the marriageable females of England, 'but the number of them actually nut- ! ried hao fallen very nearly two per cent in the same time, from 49.6 per cent to 47.7 per.", cent. There used, to fee about one.iueband for one out of every two marriageablewomen, which seems little enough, but; even this ratio was falling, until now the war has given a husband to a little more than one out of erery two of the Women of child -bearing age. The increase in the whole number of ■narriageable women alive,' which has been making itself felt for more than a generation now, without a corresponding increase in the number of marriages, so that the number of old maids was constantly growing and more and more women could not find an available husband, is now at last met by the effect produced in the minds of the men and women of the country toy the war. PSYCHOLOGY OF THE INCREASE. There has been no little discussion as to the reason for this greater frequency of marriages in war time, which has bten noted before this present conflict. Some have been flippant and nave suggested that more men and women are willing to marry provided they do not hare to live together. Others have 'been sentimental, and have suggested that it ia the emotional state of mind produced by the war flowing over into other activities that has increased the number of marriages. But generally it is felt that the seriousness of life, as emphasised by the war and its dangers, has reacted to make men and women readier to faoe the serious side of life and it* duties, and hence be willing to take on themselves its,earnest obligations. Some phases of the marriage; question as seen in war time illustrate this suggestion very strikingly. MARRIAGES OF CRIPPLED SOLDIERS Probably the most interesting feature of the marriage situation in England, with its decided increase in the, percentage of marriages to. the whole' number of the population, is the very lwge number of crippled men who have found wives ready and willing to take them. This fact has also been noted in all the countries at war. Mot only have men who went away to the war already engaged to , be married found that when they returned even sadly crippled for the future struggle for existence their fiancees were almost without an exception ready to marry them, apparently without a thought of their handicap, but a great many crippled soldiers, nursed back to health and strength of body as far' as their injuries would permit, have encountered among .'their volunteer j nurses, or among those who were trying • fj» be of assistance to the wounded sol- - J diere, noble women who were ready to > Ibe of help for all their after life.

Tie women, and above all is this meet noteworthy among the younger women, have felt that; the sacrifices made for country and the common, good by the soldier* deserved corresponding merifiees on the fart of those who ijrop*-

thfaed with-tte cause for /wßueb *• J* diera had been co ready to pay the> lull measure of devotion. Even the *elpless, for whom the oatlook of rawg any active part in Kf c is distant or out of the question, hare often found women ready to bind themselves for life to tne task of being helpmates. The Mind have been particularly fortunate in this regard, and some of those who in addition to the lose of eight have Buffered from serious disfiguring wounds of the face, which might have been expected to prove almost surely deterrent and above all preclude all question- of matrimony, have sometimes found themselves taken vp by affectionate women -who hoped to make life easier for them. . The "pity is akin to love M very old, but it has had abundant exemplification in this latest of wars. The maimed, the halt, and the Wind, and even the sadly disfigured, have been coneoled by the presence of-a pity tha> they saw grow and deepen into love. The French ■wiH have their joke, and, daring co noWy and wholeheartedly as they have, it comes with all the better grace free them. Even with regard to their wounded soldiers they have not felt it necessary to preserve an invariably solemn mien. They have spoken of putting legleae men on their feet again by teaching them new trades, and they have declared that these half portions of humanity, the cripples, may well prove satisfying riage dishes for devoted women. AfAT.F. BIRTHS PREDOMINATE. Aβ is well known, at all times, as if to compensate for the higher death rate among males because of the dangers of their occupations and their exposure to fatal accidents of manyinnde, the jlsale birth rate is always considerably above that of females. War adds to tliis always, though it is not quite clear, why it should. The influence of the war in this regard was noted at once in England. The total number of births recorded in England in 1914 was 879,096. Of these 447,184 were of males and only 431,912 were of females. Though there is considerably in excess of a million more females than males in the country every year, there were of late years some fourteen thousand more males than females .born each year, and during the first year of the iwar this pro-1 portion in favour of the males rose to bo ■well above fifteen thousand. While there are nearly twenty females to every eighteen males, in the population, more than thirty males are now born to every twenty-nine females. The birth rate in England'has not declined nearly co much from the war as it was feared and prophesied that it would. Birth rates ihave'for years 'been highest in Wales, and next to that, in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and the counties north of them, and much the lowest in the south. Births have been by far most frequent in the country districts and the smaller towns near the farming regions and lowest in the cities and larger towns, especially those of the manufacturing. areas of the country. Compared with 1913 there was an actual increase in the birth rates of the rural districts and in the smaller, towns of Wales as well as in the country places and the county boroughs of the North. Unfortunately, however-, there has been an increase in^the. death, rate among infante under one year of age,' owing, doubtless, to the disturbing influence of: tiie war because of high prices and the difficulties of .nutrition, which has more *Hm> o Tconn*efvbalaneftd° '- this increase. With rate this rige in the birth rate in certain favourable parts of the country has been a source, of no little encouragement. The notably increased birth rate of Wales since the war, taken in connection with tiie significant jump in mar-, riage. figures,- has made many feel that there are compensations in store for the warring nations that will tend to restore equilibrium in the populations and - make up even for all the sad losses of young 1 men in the war.much better, and sooner than many prophets of. evil have ventured to declare.