NATIONALISATION & NATIONAL DECAY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XL, Issue XL, 10 February 1911, Page 1

NATIONALISATION & NATIONAL DECAY.

i Dr Findlay, in a lecture on " Nationalisation and National ' Decay," j before the Dunedin Eugenics Society | recently, said in connection with the = Eerility of the unfit, that the modern 1 tendency to drift into towns was j largely accountable for it. Nearly 77 per cent of the population of Britain lived in cities and towns. In NewZealand a few years ago the the rural population exceeded the borough population, but to-day the position was rei verse*. In all large cities the birthJrate was maintained mainly by the j least fit. In the poorer part of Ber- ; lin there were 214 children to every j 1000 married women; in the richest | parts 121. In London the difference was about the same. He desired to j mark three things: (1) That the birthjrate was dwindling faster in the ernes; (2) that the reduced rate was j chiefly maintained by the fertility of the least fit; (3) that the population of New Zealand was steadily drifting to the towns and cities. The prospect justified the bold statement that for them the future means 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 imbe•cile girls had produced. 15. illegitimates, and everyone of these would be dependant all their lives on the State for everything, including ultimate burial. Among suggested eugenic remedies was a new marriage 'law which would prevent juvenile marriages. Specifically the state should cardinally aim:—(l) to keep people on the land; (2) to enforce and assist the most improved methods of town planning. Land for settlement must be found, and county life must be made attractive. If this ccuntrv was to rise to greatness, it must check I he agents of degeneration andpromote those that would improve the physical and mental qualities of the people.