ENGLISH BIRTH-RATE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LII, Issue 9188, 7 September 1906, Page 3

ENGLISH BIRTH-RATE.

The higlwey , th«. social status the. lower the birth-rate, a_d the lower the .social status the higher the birth-rate. This is the summing-up of Mr .fiavid Heron, M.A., who recently issued a paper on the relation of social 'status to tfae birth-rate, v " in a ,oon_ec_ on with 'the fe- :. searches into the. causes of natural deterioration now' .being mode by the University , of London. ■ Further, Mr Heron says: — "'The relationship between inferior status and high-birth-rate 'has practically "doubled during the last 50 -years, and it 'is clear that in London, at least, the reducin the size of families has begun at wtiie wrong end of the social scale, and is ' 'increasing in the wrong way.". Going into, details, he paints a .depressing picture: "As far aa" the pTes&nt investigation goes, it demonstrates, I think, conclusively that for the London district's ' there is a very close relationship between undesirable social status and a high births rate. 'In distiricte where there is over- \ crowding, where there is a superabund- • ' ance of the lowest type of labor, where it is needful to employ many young children in order 4to earn daily bread for the family, where infantile mortality is greatest-, there the wives of reproductive ages 1 have .most children., - , WiheTe there is more cultuire and education, as shown by " " a higher proportion of professional men, where there is more leisure and comfort, • as • shown by a higher percentage of domestic servants, where the traders who appeal to . the improvident and thriftless are fewer in m_abeT, there the birth-rate is least. Again, where there is more general . pauperism, where signs of bad environment dike phthisis are prevalent, where pauper lunatics- are most plentiful, there €ke birthrate is highest. Cancer alone of the undesirable physical conditions' dealt with so far seems more prevalent in the prosperous and cultured' districts, and to be associated- with a lower birth-rate. Nor is the higher birth-rate ci the undesirab*le elements compensated by the higher death-rate. The net fertility of the lower status remains higher than that of the superior status." In regard to cancer, it is a strange fact that the high suffer most from this scourge. Mr Heron <says that the results he has collected seem to indicate that the conditions of prosperity and culture which lead to a low birth-rate also conduce to a higher cancer death-rate. In other words, cancer cannot, like phthisis, be taken as a measure of that unhealthy environment with which a high' birth-rate seems to be associated. In bis annual report, Dr A. Wellesley Harris, the medical officer of health for Lewisham, says that, while the diminution in the birth-sate oocthb chiefly among the more {wealthy classes of the: community, the Responsibility of maintaining a surplus of the population is falling in a great proportion upon those classes least able to maintain their offspring and equip them for future positions in life.