THE WAR BABY

Northland Age, Volume 14, Issue 33, 26 April 1917, Page 5

THE WAR BABY

Colonel Allen Bell is nothing if not courageous, and he has taken the bull by the horns in his advocacy of the claims of the war baby to state consideration. Col. Bell says there arc a large number of women in New Zealand whose children have soldiers as fathers, and he urges that provision be made, in such cases, for marriage by proxy, and for the legitimisation of the children of soldiers born out of wedlock. He thinks that the State should hold no child illegitimate when born out of wedlock, but left the larger question an open one. With regard to marriage by proxy there will be little difficulty in agreement being come to, but the other question raises very wide issues which will have to be carefully guarded against. It should be rendered easy to marry, where conditions arc suitable, but obviously, premiums must not be placed on irregular unions. The family is the safeguard of the race, and without it the people will perish Indeed, the western races appear to be rapidly committing suicide. The birth rate drops year by year, and cases of no children, or one or two children of a marriage are becoming the rule rather than the exception. Bound up with this is the high cost of living question, and the average married man will echo our words when we say that to indulge in large families in these days is to court financial disaster. When medical men charge up to £2O for coming two or three times to Otorohanga, and of course more to the back block districts, there is little encouragement to help to build up the State t But the trouble does not end here. On every hand the family man is bled, whether it be for rents, railway travel, school necessities, or any other requirement. What seems to us to be a more urgent need than even the legitimisation of soldiers’ children is that some real relief be afforded the married people of this country who arc endeavouring to bring up their families in decency and comfort.