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AUSTRALIAN BIRTHS MINISTER OUTSPOKEN “CARS BEFORE BABIES" NO FUTURE FOR NATION (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Feb. 27, 2.50 p.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 27. “Unless we can increase the birthrate there is no future for Australia,” said the Minister of the Navy, Mr. W. M. Hughes, commenting on the report that there had been a serious fall in the rate. The decline was not so marked among the working classes as among the well-to-do people. “Radios and cars are preferred to babies,” said Mr. Hughes. “Here is a land which has 7,000,000 people and which should hold 70,000,000 on a moderate estimate.
“The standards of values we have adopted provide flats for childless people—places where men and women can sleep, not homes where families can be bred and reared. What is the good of talking about a new order in face of things like that? “Unless Australia increases her population she will be staggered under a crushing burden of taxation when the war ends,” he added.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20492, 28 February 1941, Page 9
Word Count
168SERIOUS DECLINE Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20492, 28 February 1941, Page 9
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