DOMINION'S BIRTHRATE.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15774, 15 December 1916, Page 10

DOMINION'S BIRTHRATE.

NEED FOR. ENCOURAGEMENT

At a largely attended public meeting in ronnexion with the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of "Women and Children, popularly known as the Plunket Nurse Society, held in the Auckland Town "Hall on Monday evening, the Hon. G. "W. Russell (Minister of Public Health) referred to the decline in the birth-rate that had taken place in the Dominion in recent years. Whereas, ho said, the average annual rate from 1882 to 1886 was 35.40 per thousand of the population, it had gradually fallen, and in 1015 it was only 25.33 per thousand. This was the lowest on Record except that of 1899, when it was 25.12 per thousand. The question, like the social evil, was one that required to bo dealt with iu plain terms. It might, become neceseivry for the Government to introduce legislation, if power to do it by regulation did not already exist, to prohibit the importation of certain articles into the Dominion. The time had come, said the Minister, when tho State must take its share of the burden of the responsibility for the maintenance and upbringing of the population of the Dominion. By doing so it would no doubt £.ssiot to check the decline iu the birth-rate. A statement prepared by the Government Statistician showed that had the 1886 rate of increase in the population been maintained until 1915, there would have been 2-10, COO more people in New Zealand at- the end of last year. One gratifying feature was tho fact that New Zealand had the lowest death-rate in the world. Last year it was 9.00 per thousand, compared with 10.66 in Australia. Dr. F. Truby King s.sid that all connected with the work of the Plunket Society appreciated the great encourment that it was receiving from the Government, and especially from Mr Russell. He spoke of the attention that had been given to the subject of infantile diseases for many years, and gave a brief history of the formation and growth of the society. In speaking of the need for increasing tho birth-rate, he said that the increase of population in France in recent years before the war had been 20,009 a. year, as against 800,000 in Germany. Had there, been no decrease in the birth-rate in France since the Franco-Prussian war it would have made a difference of no less than thirty millions, to th:.t country".