HELPING THE BIRTHRATE

Grey River Argus, 19 May 1943, Page 3

HELPING THE BIRTHRATE

AUSTRALIAN FAMILY PLAYS ITS PART. SYDNEY, May 4. The Lucas family of Bega, a town on. the south coast of New South Wales, pi ovide a perfect illustration of what the leader of the United Australia Party (Mr W. M. Hughes) meant when he said, “People are the only substantial assets in a country —not its natural resources or great industrial enterprises.” During an address at Sydney on “Social Reconstruction After the War” Mr Hughes stressed the danger of the falling birthrate in Australia. Hp pointed out that had the rate between 1909-13 been maintained the country’s population would have been 4,000,000 greater to-day, and Australia "would not have needed the assistance she now does. By Mr Hughes’s ''standards the Lucases of Bega are a reproach to childless unions and small families. There are 10 Lucas sons and four Lucas daughters. Nine of the sons enlisted in the Army, and the tenth, aged 14, is eager to join the Navy. Basil enlisted at 16 by putting his age forward and served through Greece and Crete with the 7th. Division. He was 19 when he was killed by a sniper’s bullet in New Guinea. When he died, the King and Queen sent the father, Henry Lucas, a letter of sympathy, which read: “We pray that your country’s gratitude for a life so nobly lost in its service may bring you some measure of consolation.”

“I’m going to write and ’’thank them,” said Mr Lucas. “I’ll send them pictures of all the boys.” Another son, Dudley, is missing, believed killed in Malaya. He enlisted three times, beina- twice discharged after a few months because of an injury to his collarbone, but being retained at the third attempt.

Cecil, 21, and Jack, 20, enlisted in the A.I.F. together, went abroad with the 9th. Division and returned home a few' weeks agp. Lancelot, 32, Bill, 30, .and Ron, 28, enlisted in the A.I.F. in 1940. After Middle East campaigning, Bill and Ron were discharged medically unfit: They couldn’t stay out of uniform; both went into the Militia. Rufus, 29, and Henry, 35, are at Darwin.

Mr Lucas, who is 65, tried to qnlist in the A.I.F. as a cook. He was rejected because of his eyes. All the Lucas girls are married. They and the sons who have married have, like their parents, gone in for big families. Florence has 10 children, Henry

has eight, Keziah has six, Lance has four, Nancy and Bill have three each.

“I brought the boys up tough, ’ and they find fighting easy,” said Mr Lucas. “Every year at Bega we camped out, while mother and the girls hve’d in town. In winter we trapped rabbits, and in summer we gathered wattle bark.”