EUGENICS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 37, 26 January 1911, Page 7

EUGENICS.

ADDRESS BY DR. FINDLAY.

[per press association.}

Dunedin, Jan. 25.•

The Hon. Dr. Findlay, in a lecture on ” Urbanisation and National Decay.” before the Eugenics I Society tp-night, said in connection, with the fertility of the unfit that the modern tendency to drift into towns was largely accountable. Nearly 77 per cent, of the popula- ; lion of Great Britain lived' in citI ies, and so it was in New Zealand. : A few years ago the rural populaj tion exceeded the borough popula- ; tion, but to-day the position was | reversed. In large cities the i birth-rate was maintained mainly ;by the least fit. In the poorer [part of L'eCia there were 214 childI ran to every 1000 married women; |in the richest parts, 121. .In Lon- , don the difference was about thesan;e. He desired to mark three things : (1) That the birth-rate was dwindling fastest in the cities; (2) that the reduced birthrate was chiefly maintained by the fertility of the least fit; and (3) that the ; population of New Zealand was steadily drifting to towns and cities. The prospect justified the conclusion that for them the future meant either eugenics or extinction. One family of defectives, in all its branches prolific, would in a few years cost us in asylums, gaols, and homes, some £20,000. Two imbecile girls had produced 15 illegitimates, and every one of these would be dependent during their whole lives on the State for everything, including ultimate burial. Amongst the suggested eugenic remedies were a new marriage law, which would prevent juvenile marriages. Specifically the State should aim : (1) To keep people on the land ; (2) to enforce and insist upon the most approved method of town planning. Land for settlement must be found, andcountry life must be made more attractive. If this country was to rise to greatness it must check the agents of degeneration and promote those that would improve the physical and mental qualities of the people.