BABIES AND THE STATE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22196, 13 September 1937, Page 6

BABIES AND THE STATE

TO THE EDITOR OF TUB PRESS. i Sir.—Wo read daily through the ; columns of your paper a great deal ; about the encouragement to increase ; the birth of children. v I wish briefly to mention two cases " of which I know. (1) I am a work--1 ing man, aged 50. earning £4 a week ■ under an award, and am the father of nine children (five under 14), for • whom I am collecting no allowance • whatsoever. (2) A working man. aged 47, earning 13s a day, and working ' only in fine weather, averaging about £3 a week. He is the father of 11 children (nine under 14), for whom he receives an endowment of 2s a child for seven children, making a total earning of roughly £3 14s a j week, which is barely enough for a i man and wife, let alone children. j The Government is urging the people jto increase the birth-rate. I see it is not so urgent to increase the present meagre endowment. The sum of 2s a child, for every child over two, is indeed a poor encouragement to a man to raise a family nowadays. If children are so important to State welfare, surely fathers should receive a bigger allowance than this. We might as well receive none at all. I wonder what it would cost the State to rear them. If I had my life to live over again. I know how many children I would raise. The answer is none at all, and at that rate the population of New Zealand would soon die out if every person was as fed up as I am.—Yours, etc FATHER OF NINE. September 12, 1937.