DR. RERCUS' WARNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 191, 13 August 1940, Page 6

DR. RERCUS' WARNING.

With the whole country involved in discussion over the raisin? of wapett.it. is too much to expect to find many folk* worried over the country's declining birthrate. The fact that."as the poet puts, it, "The infant, mewling and puking in its nurse's arms," is the necessary first step to the ".soldier, full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard" ("X6 shave?" "No razor, sir*) doe* seem, however, to be worth a moment's consideration. "In the moment, the need is for men. but for the future the need w for babies"—so wrote one of our clearest thinker* on the eve of Anzac ** ... it jg men. strong men, that it will need in its danger a generation hence." The true nation is made continuous by its home life—the babies of to-day are our Dominion's price'es* insurance against, the inexorable death which awaits it at the hands of the teeminy alien hordes which will one day surely hammer at our sea gates. There was a day when grandad super* ised the buying of the familv pram: "Get. one that will last." he told "the missus"— in his day "the childher" brought the hick to many a roaring camp throughout the land—this same land where wealth accumulates and "kids" are an "encumbrance." To-day granpop'f grandson, as" he pays the rent for his tcn-by-seven flat, congratulates himself ih:u he picked a shrewd wife who understands birth control—thi* enabling both of 'em to hold down a job apiece. as ha added those bright jws*a?ft- to the Brble. wouldn't have understood I>r. Hercus' warning. Do we! JJacCLURE.