DECLINING BIRTH-RATE

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 41, 16 February 1918, Page 4

DECLINING BIRTH-RATE

« 10 THE EDITOR. Sir, —I have read with much interest, the various letters which have appeared in The Post lately on the question of the scarcity of babies. "Each and all of your correspondents appear to take the sanw view that this lamentable scarcity, is entirely due to a moral perversion on the part of those married people who aro not rearing a family; that these couples are, by thoir own wicked desire for a life of ease and freedom from care, actually and wilfully stemming the stream of life at the fountain head. Tho unanimity of your correspondents on this point and their desire that these "slackers" should be made to pay—in coin of tho realm— for their neglect of duty, appears to point to the fact that tha' writers are parents who, though no doubt buoyed, up by tho joys of parenthood, .fdel that the trials of this life are imperfectly'distributed, and that the said-joys need alittle extra sustaining to make them quite perfect. However that filay be, 1 am sure that those who consider that i every "childless couple childless by

their own desire are not only wrong, but ate unjust and uncharitable. There is many a couple—unfortunately, only too many—who would undergo anything if by so dojng they could "fill the cradle." The lot of the childless wife has been considered a hard one in all times, and she has generally been regarded as an object of pity. Now, it seems that the reverse is the caae, and that those who have been vouchsafed the inestimable gift of parenthood regard the childless ones with eyes from which the gleam of envy is not altogether absent. Have they no sympathy for their sister who, with the normal desires of woman, enters upon her married life, and, as year succeeds year, finds her hopes unrealised? In her efforts to fill the void, she possibly spends her money on things which are not available to those whose _ children gather round their knees; but is that a cause, for envy or a reason for invoking the aid of Parliament "to bring the huzzy to her senses" 1 \ Acts of Parliament of a primitive nature will not remedy the evil. The declining birth-rate is a result of civilisation, and the ascendency of the intellectual over the animal nature of man. It is the law of nature, and the causes are beyond the reach, of taxation, I am afraid. ■ There is, however, no gainsaying the fact that the lot of a mother of a young family in these days is almost unbearable, unless the home be plentifully supplied with money. No help to be had, not even a charwoman, nurses and doctors at prohibitive prices—no wonder the mother of one hesitates over number two and the father of three wonders if it is worth while. It is all the result of our mode of life, our vaunted'civilisation. Back to the bush if large families are wanted, and let the children grow; like the flowers, without the need for school books and "free places," pianos, and plates. ' ' It is the times that are out of joint, and until we achieve a mode of life somewhat more in accord- with nature the birth-rate will continue to decline, but in the meantime a little more of kindness towards the lonely wives who are not mothers would not be amiss.— I am, etc., ■ PATER. 14th February. ' -■ ' .