The Birthrate

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 174, 20 April 1937, Page 11

The Birthrate

Sir, —In reply to your correspondent, “A Woman,” who apparently is speaking collectively when giving a reason why women will not have children, offers a very lame excuse to dodge her rightful obligations. Most of us are familiar with the woman who is always making difficulties. No matter what arrangement or project is proposed, she will give you on the instant plenty of reason why it won’t work or shouldn’t be attempted. It is not only that she has what mu. be called a contrary nature, but she is constitutionally opposed to facing any task that calls for a little exertion on her part. There is a sluggishness in her blood, an inertia in her body, that counsels repose rather than action. She sees difficulties that may or may not exist, and assumes the role of a passive resister. All women who have achieved anything in this world have been those who have courted rather than escaped difficulties. They have fought for their place in life by motherhood and never been afraid to attempt what the majority have refused. To enlighten your correspondent one may briefly state that prudent parents would not bring children into the world if they were to be ill-fed and ill-housed. Education has made men and women acutely sensitive to the harsh conditions in industry. Modern England has no tyrant like the industrial magnate whose work-people enjoy no security of tenure and often worked for a mere sustenance while he made a fortune. There is no doubt that it is this industrial tyranny combined with flat life which is the antiChristian force making for small families. Actually, when a bridegroom leads his bride to the altar, it should be the happiest event in his life; but for most “wage-plugs,” it is the beginning of a hard struggle for existence, wherein there is little thought for children who are even refused admittance to dwellings where Pekingese pups are made welcome. Some women are no better than the broody hen who sits on turnips if shoved under her instead of eggs, which, after all, only obeys the same instinct that lures some of our chickless females into coddling pomeranians. Which reminds me of the newly-wed bride who, entertaining her guests in a small luxury flat, furnished the information: that she had decided on dogs, the first year, anyway. The Government is to be very highly commended on its housing scheme. Human beings must have more spacious surroundings, and people with common sense are well aware that the main trouble ascribed to flats is the decreasing birth-rate, where children have no place in these small places.—l am, etc., R. T. RUDD Wellington, April 19.