NATIONAL DECAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1908, Page 6

NATIONAL DECAY.

Mr. A. J. Balfour, meditating upon tho rise and fall of nations, might be more useful as a citizen of I^ew ZealancPthan as ft citizen of Britain. In New Zealand, it is true, the hoiizon is roseate, and there is no such word as "fail" in our bright lexicon of youth. Yet our practice of government exhibits at some points an inclination to- out Tim theory, and in some directions we have leaped so far that it has become increasingly advisable tb look baforo we leap. At Newnham Mr. Balfour is reported a&giving slavery, a diminishing birth-rate, and lack of initiative among the causes of national decay. Are these indeed causes? or are they not rather correlatives and accompaniments — tho outward manifestations of a deeper ill? Tho cable message is meagre ; but it is likely that Mr. Balfour's address was intended as a counterblast to Socialism. He descended irom the peaks of pi irate doubt in. order to convey his trepidations J,q^.th* .multlUulfl. XMa* in Mr. Balfour'a.

sense, would be classed, as an incursion into "practical politics." With all his knowledge and taknt, ho does not nppenr yet to have realised that, for the greater part of humanity, thought reaches fruition only in action ; and the business of politics to which he is committed consists chiefly in the application of thought to the lives of the people. It is the politician's role to make dreams real. W© take it that by "slavery"' Mr. Balfour meant the social slavery that lesults from the intrusion of State regulation, and State officials to preserve the regulation, not only into ovcry field l of public activity, but also into every private sphere of life. From this follows directly the loss of initiative that he adduced as another cause of national docny. In proportion as we are over-rulsd we lose the competence to rule ourselves ; power departs with the failure to exercise function ; and the community becomes a community of spineless dependents. Since the merit of "th© State," or tho capacity of "tlie Government," cannot be greater than the merit and capacity of the individuils who compose tho Government ; and since, under Socialism {is elsewhere, tliere is no su_r^» way of providing that the Government shall represent the best intelligence of the community, while possibly it may represent the worst, it follows that the nomiual rule by the consansus of citizens becomes really the rule of an oligarchy, and when this fails the community which has ceded all its 'ights of enterprise and powers of action fails inevitably also. A diminishing bhth-rats is indeed a cause of national decay, but rather it is a symptom. For a diminishing birtli-rate has itself causes more profound. What are those causes? They concern us in New Zealand, where the yearly gain of population by excess of births over deaths, after marked fluctuation, seems to be approaching stability at something like two per cent. This is still high as compared with European rates ; but it is lower . than we might expect from the age and character of settlement and tho density of popula-' tion. Progress and prosperity account ior the diminution : there is a direct relation between a, surplus of revenue and a deficit of babies. As incomes rise, the birth-rate falls. Why? Apparently because the appetite for civilisation comes in eating ; because thoso to whom life gives more require more of life ; because the development of reason attenuates instinct, and the victory of the individual implies the defeat of the race. There are exceptions and reservations ; but the theory holdn. It is maintained in practice by the postponement of marriago because children do not willingly relinquish the comfort that has cost their parents a life-time to acquire ; by the reluctance of thoso who, single, are amply provided with pleasant occupation, to make the sacrifice that often follows marriage ; and by tha disinclination of one potential parent or of both parents to add to the responsibilities of a life that has grown full of complexity. Tho higher the standard of comfort or of acquirement is set, the greater the general difficulty in maintaining it : hence that condition of bodily comfort and mental acquirement which wo name civilisation advances ,in an inverse ratio to the size of families. When the problem of family life is reduced to the provision of food and shelter, the birth-rate increases ; when it involves considerations of social condition and education, tho quality of food and the kind of shelter, the birth-rate falls. Barbarism multiplies continually, despite all the checks of barbarism ; civilisation, with all its safeguards, tends always to becomo unproductive in proportion as it scales the peaks of progress, so fruitful in one aspect, so barren in another. 'Thero is no remedy ; but there aro palliatives. One is the effective advocacy of the simple life, divested of wasteful superfluity ; the other is the effective insurance of decent living to the multitude. To lessen the demands of the present, and to rob the future of anxiety, would bring about a new Saturnian reign where selfish and prudential cheeks would cease to operate. It may bo that the cure for the evil of a diminishing birth-rate will be found in a system of State pensions on a, higher scalo than has yet been proposed, with manhood taxed heavily to provide liberally for 'old age and infancy.