German Births Still Too Few

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 80, 5 April 1938, Page 9

German Births Still Too Few

Writing in a German paper, Dr. Gutt, head of the Health Department of the Ministry of the Interior, states hat births are still 11 per cent, short of the figure necessary to maintain the German population at its present level. Under the “two children system’ ’ (which before 1933 had been partially succeeded by the “one-child family") the German nation, writes Dr. Gutt, would become extinct in about 10 generations, or 300 years.

These calculations arc based upon the present fall in the death rate owing to greater longevity, followed by a future rise iu consequence of the higher average age of the population. Actually the excess of births over deaths in 1936 was 7.2 per 1000, to which it rose from tho low level of 3.5 per 1000 in 1933. In 1910 it was 13.6 per 1000, and in 1925 8.8 per 1000. Under the official encouragement of marriages some of the ground lost since 1925 has been recovered. But the full effects of the system of subsidising families directly by monthly payments for children and indirectly by tax remissions are yet to be shown.