THE BIRTH-RATE QUESTION.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 3913, 18 October 1899, Page 4

THE BIRTH-RATE QUESTION.

A BTJGGEaTKD SOLTITIOir. 'Are New Zealandera a decadent race? asks the Dun^din Star, and our contemporary then fcoes on to say :—' Here it is —in the matter of the proportion of births and marriages —that we seem to be face to face with the chief trouble. We snspect that the majority of our readers have been under the impression that a fail in the marriage rate is mainly responsible for the fall in the birth rate. We wish it were so; the problem would be lees difficult andY (we may add) less delicate. As a matter of fact however, the marriage rate does not show the diminution which might naturally account for the fall in the biith rate. Not only has the actual number of marriages increased while the actual number of births has decreased, but the proportion of marriages to population has also increased. There were 3277 marriages in 1881, when the " population was 493,482; there were 4928 in 1897, when the population was 721,609. In other words, there was (reckoning . roughly) in 1881 a marriage to every i&5 persons; in 1897 a marriage to every 146 persons. So that it is not sufficient —noi indeed, specially pertinent—-tc meet this population question witi the lament: * Why don't the met propose?' or with the cry * Put« tax on bachelors.' No doubt ai increase in the marriage rat< would be welcome, and everj reasonable encouragement shoulc be offered in this direction; bu 1 the simple truth seems to be thai a bonus on the reproductivenesi of the married, rather than a ten * on the unmarried, is what Nev Zealand might most suitably institute.' >