LARGE FAMILIES.

Evening Star, Issue 20981, 21 December 1931, Page 11

LARGE FAMILIES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,' —I have read several letters in your paper discussing the problem of whether it is right or wrong for people living on the dole and depending on charity to have large families, and I certainly agree with “ Worker’s Wife and Mother of Three.” “ Nil Desperandum” writes of thousands of mothers who have brought large families into the world being unable to give them a university education, or a white collar job. Why, the way things are at present they cannot supply them with the common _ necessities of life, so how is it possible to instil in their minds that standard of character or spirit of independence which he writes about when the parents themselves are wilfully bringing children into the world while they know full well that they will bo depending on charity to rear them? Why .bring up the war? It has gone and passed, and we have all done our bit one way or another. We recognise we are ail suffering from the effects of. the war, also from the extravagance of the working people when times were good. “ Nil Desperandum ” says, “ should there be a repetition of the period 1914-18.” I have discussed the matter with dozens of returned men, and they have all declared “ never again.” “ Nil Desperandum ” says that “ Worker’s Wife ’’ could render most valuable information, etc., etc. _ I feel sure she would do so most willingly. I am sorry I cannot understand “ Nil Desperandum ” when ho talks about looking into the red glow of tho fire and beholding visions and asking himself where are all my children? How many does he want? Why not adopt a ■ few from the proud _ possessor of twelve? I think_ he is a bit too dramatic to bo sincere. “ Mother of Eight ” starts off by saying, “ Mother of Three ” is very lucky to have only three.” Surely if some people can regulate the size of their families other people can do the same. She also writes of the respect shown to our elders in our young days. Quite true, but, alas, times and fashions have changed. Where will you find respect from young people these days, and who is to blame? Why, the parents, for the lavish way they have brought them up, instead of teaching them a bit of hard work and self-respect. I will guarantee there are many families who have lost golden opportunities who are doing some hard thinking at the present time. At the close of her_ letter she -mentions the fact of assistance givefi by helping to populate the country. You certainly get no gold medals for that, for, according to scientists, the whole world is over-populated. I have every confidence that “ Worker’s Wife and Mother of Three ” is well able to answer all letters that arc up against the noble stand she is taking by showing what a little self-restraint and a spirit of independence can do. If more people would follow along the same lines as she has adopted we would not have the same amount of poverty and distress with us to day.—l am, etc., On Half Pay, December 19.

TO TUB BDITOB. Sir, —The publication of the largo family photograph in the ‘ Star ’ was certain to elicit cilnstie comment in writing, as it did verbally, and that beginning bids fair to set going a real campaign of ink slinging for and against, which is not calculated to really advance the discussion at all. One correspondent writes of our respect for our mothers and grandmothers who had largo families. I have yet to hear any unbiassed person, especially a woman, speak with “respect” of this old-time practice. Pity, yes, and sometimes scorn; but one has to possess a peculiar mentality to “respect” and “look up to” those who, helpless in the general ignorance and bigotry of the time, produced inevitable hordes of children. Again, is it necessary to say that ’ the bringing into the world and feeding, clothing, educating, and placing in work or careers or children, in small numbers even, is now a vastly more costly, complicated, and difficult proposition than that facing our mothers or grandmothers of yesterday? The disposal of and upbringing of children in old times was child’s play to what must to-day bo adopted it justice is to bo done to the child in every respect. This is so self-evident that one apologises for mentioning it. One correspondent writes of the sacrifice of mothers from 1914 to 1918, apparently quite unaware of the fact that it was the production of these vaunted largo families by British, German, French, and other mothers that helped to make the insanity of 1914-1918 inevitable. I have before this gone into the aspect of population upon war and its certain effect of causing such an outbreak, but would like those who think the sacrifice of mothers so praiseworthy to pause and ask themselves just what the British, German, French, and other nations’ mothers got out of their performance of duty but “cannon fodder” and heartaches. Had the mother and grandmother of to-day boon able to pursue the course now becoming open to the modern wife, the World War would ( almost certainly not have eventuated, and the present-day limitation of families is one of the gleams of hopes for the future in that respect. I agree that those in possession of knowledge of methods for the prevention of largo families have a right, nay,

more, a duty to impart that knowledge to those whoso circumstances make these large families, or even small, ones, more than a' blunder, but rather a crime. It says little for our boasted social services that under proper supervision and control such advice should not bo readily accessible to every married woman who desires it, as is done by a valiant body of workers in England. The trouble is that the interested agencies and organisations whose policy is against such a sane move are too powerful to permit the establishment of birth , control clinics in onr midst. No greater need exists than the provision of information to married people only (a course easily guarded against mis-nse)_ of how to keep their families within limits set by the economic position of the day. The churches have been forced to give way on the birth control question, so when we have gained that measure of consent it is certain that a real move in a practical way is long overdue. Here is an opportunity for puhlic-spirited men and women.—l am, etc., E.W.F. December 19.

*0 THB EDITOR. Sir,-—The' parents of largo families take great credit to themselves for supplying the soldiers in time of war. They may go further, and also take the credit to themselves of being the cause of all tire wars except the religious ones, which have devastated this old world of ours since the beginning of time. It is recorded of a certain man in the Bible that when ho waxed fat he kicked. The same is true of nations. When they wax populous they kick their neighbours. Germany in 1914 kicked the whole world in order to find an outlet for her surplus population. Had the Fatherland possessed fewer fathers, and kept the population down to the numbers its territory could support, the Great War with all its horrors and post-war misery would never have happened. ■ The same thing is taking place in Japan. Travellers tell us that Japan is so densely populated that her people are literally crowded off her islands, and as they are still increasing she must expand somewhere. Australia and America are barred, hence she worries the League of Nations by making trouble in Manchuria. The war in that region years ago between Russia and Japan was an attempt by both to find an outlet. Italy, with her everincreasing population, is a menace to the peace of Europe, and an aggressor in North Africa. The tragedy of India is that she is Mother India. Her teeming population is for the greater part crushed into abject poverty by the sheer weight of its numbers. One writer has said that _ the only remedy for India’s troubles is another planet into whch she can overflow. The same may be sad of Java. The, teaching of Dr Marie Stopcs, intelligently applied, will do more to prevent war and bring prosperity than the League of Nations and all the credit schemes- ever invented. The trouble with this saving doctrine is that those= who most need the efficacy of its grace arec unwilling to apply it. New Zealand is one of the few countries left where the population is small and there is a sense of space and room to breathe. Why crowd it till it reproduces all the worst features of the old countries? Let our new motherland be one we can respect for hpr “ moderation in all things.” especially in the number of her children. —I am, etc., Mother of None. December 18.

TO THB EDITOR. Sir,—What a womanly (?) act on the part of “ Worker’s Wife ami Mother of Three ” to take tip the cudgels on behalf of the family of twelve whose photograph appeared in your paper of the IGth nit. Hers must truly be a life of self-satisfaction, knowing she is capable of living the perfect life and practising what she preaches. Few, if any, of ns find ourselves in a position to withstand the bnffetings of our present day existence. Al ter all, it has truly been said one man’s moat is another man’s poison. The lather and mother of this large family should surely bo commended for their courage in allowing their family to be photographed. Instead of the usual collection of household annuals they have something to be proud of. May I ask your correspondent: (1) Why, in a comparatively new country like New Zealand, proclaimed by men of integrity to bo capable of carrying double or treble its present population, there should.be any need for relief depots? (2) Why are there thousands of acres of land practically unpopulated while stalwart men, through no fault of their own, arc compelled to beg in order to keep tbeir homes going and feed their families? (3) Is sbo sufficiently conversant with the type of person who had the audacity to bring a family of twelve into the, world to prove they must necessarily rely on someone else (perhaps your correspondent) to feed and clothe their family? How has the present depression and censor]uont Jack of employment affected worker's wife? I venture to say, from the tone of her letter, she is one of the few lucky ones to whom existing conditions have made no difference.

After all the number of people doing as your correspondent suggests, “ living

a noblo life,” must be, if one looks round, very much in the minority. Tho pioneers to whom wc are indebted for blazing the trail in this fair country wore in tho majority of cases able to maintain and educate large familiies—this in times far removed from our pre-sent-day life of case and convenience. (I use the latter sentence in contrast to the hardships under which these people had to work.) I venture to remark, had the wholesale immigrating been stopped long ago and provision made lor those born in New Zealand to take up small holdings where practicable in the country, assistance _ being given those in town to own their own homes, much of the present unemployment and distress would have been alleviated. It is not a very long time since a northern contemporary published a photograph of a mother, father, and fifteen children, assisted immigrants, all of whom (those who were able to work) had billets waiting for them. Why encourage immigration on these lines when it must have been apparent to those in charge that tho country generally was heading for its present crisis? In conclusion, may I be permitted to say God help anyone expecting anything in reason, much less “ everything,” as suggested by your correspondent, to be provided by the State? Would “ Worker’s Wife and Mother of Three,” noblo woman as . she is, enlighten your readers as to tho manner in which she has helped her less fortunate associates during the past critical months? Her reply will, I am, sure, be awaited by many.—l am, etc., Do Unto Others. December 19.