The Times TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1937. Population Problems

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 122, 25 May 1937, Page 6

The Times TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1937. Population Problems

“lam not prejudging the question of what the ideal population of Britain ought to be,” said Sir William Beveridge. Director of the London School of Economics, in a recent speech.

‘‘l do not say for a moment that a smaller population than we have to-day would be a disaster. The point is that even if we do not want as many as 40,000,000 people in these islands we want some people. We have to stop the decline, if not to-day, then some time.

“ Under the present social organisation, with their present degree of desire for children, the people of these islands are heading for disappearance. For the survival of any race every couple in it must have, on an average, two descendants who grow up to replace them. To allow for people who have none, or less than two, to allow for children dying before they grow up, a large proportion of parents must have three or four children.

“ One reason why people do not have children is that they are afraid of the risk of child-birth. Obviously something can be done by making maternity as safe and painless os applied science can make it for every mother as it can be made for the richest mother.

“ A second reason for small families is the cost of rearing children. The question of family allowances will before long be in the centre of all discussions of social policy. Creches and nursery schools have their value. They ought not to be the main solution of our problem. The trouble is wc arc crowding our population more and more away from the country into towns. We are like a snail making for ourselves a shell so small that we cannot go on living in it.”