THE BIRTH-KATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12523, 16 March 1904, Page 4

THE BIRTH-KATE.

We publish in another part of today's issue the opinions of a number of Auckland clergymen on the subject of the declining birth-rate. The views expressed are such as on© would naturally expect from ministers of religon, but they do not bring us any nearer to a practical solution of the problem. All right-thinking men and women must deplore and condemn the state of things that has grown up in the body politic, but it is no easy matter to discover an effective remedy for an evil which statistics prove must be very widespread. There is less difficulty in assigning with approximate accuracy some of the contributory causes which have brought about the decreased . birth-rate. Some of these are indicated by Mr. Teece, general manager of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, in a, valuable report on "The Decline in the Birthrate in New South Wales," presented to the board of directors some time ago. He came to the conclusion, from a careful study of statistics bearing on the subject, that the decreased.. birth-rate in that colony was due largely to the fact that the proportion of marriages at a late period of life had greatly increased, and that this was owing toFirst : The increasing luxury of the age. Young women of the. present day are not content to begin where their mothers began; on the contrary, they wish to begin where their mothers left off. The tendency to extravagance, the passion ( for ostentation, the ambition to make a figure in society, which are such distinctive features of present-day existence among females, make young men hesitate before assuming the responsibilities which married life imposes on them. Second: The increasing employment of women in commercial avenues. In the old days, mothers and daughters both looked to marriage as the goal of existence, and the old maid shared with the mother-in-law the stigma of reproach. In later times women have become wage-earners, and the consciousness of the power to earn, with its attendant sense of freedom, has tended to make them impatient of the marriage yoke .'and the inconvenience of child-bearing. Third : The practical cessation of immigration to the State. All the influences of religion, the spread of education, and the general progress of civilisation, have apparently been unable to pievent the growth of the conditions which we are now brought face to face with. The cure must come from within, and that change can only be brought by the creation of ' a healthier public opinion, and the adootion of a healthier fit.nnrlnwl r»f