THE POPULATION PROBLEM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15849, 20 February 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE POPULATION PROBLEM.

TIT tdihnua.

IMi ni, i.iii-t he ,i strong undercurrent i'l tooling in l [ ac community upon the pi'tuila:i.•■!, pii-bleu; („ judge" by the miniC 1 1,1 J l '-'- 01 -'' received that agree with it Xi v d J,,; Babies. ' Jbe ciifti< u 11\is that I hoy g. 1101 :iJI\ differ as to remedy, .."! example. '■lip correspondent urges that the (.•'■'.eminent should take the matter "I' -i- thev l.t k,- up ..t bor matter.-! count ted with lie welfare of the people. ' " eat attention is paid to th- improve- ' ''' ll 1 ' '' ,0 'j lit \of cur produce, the improv emf !it of our tlm ks and herds, but " mpHtal little is done with regard " lV ' l; it >'on term 'a greater produce st '" Arte retYriing t.. the Frem h official i• i viM igat ions :l11• > the question <•' I" piiietioa. th.s . oricspondent Mil*pests that : Suit!\ tjie wise heads of thin Dominion tou!d meet together and devise >r i n"' means (■: .uou.-mg public attention and of sc. uur.g genera! . operation in a matter >i, h vit il imno-i tarn " the (nib :!tv i-, , (i>ur-.-, that the Mate, as slate, has never been able to deal eflectively wit It questions ,■( ethics or t.» originate any movement affectum the personality of the individual. The State tan o;iiv work along lines into "hi ii tin l m.'.niatious and intentions of t"o . immunity ,i- iii -e aie already due. ted. Il the old fashioned family hie lit .a me the popular ideal, we >:-cu!d icvei; to the old fashioiKxi family and st.i re action i ouul and would powerfully en..oarage a m.oemcut tiie slate ■ ! never originate. Neve: al ..the; coi respondents suggest a i.ix on bachelor-. who have in, relatives to ■iuuhml. Ims i- sound enough —if public opinion demands it. In fact, one of the mysteries ••! il-.- social o! ganisation is the sheep like manner m which the married man l»nv--. J,., head ~, the tax toilet, r and raises a .family ti pay taxes tor ever \ I.lie his imniariied neighbour enjoys such good things „> are gt ing and serenely anticipates ..id ace pension and other tax-gathered plums. In war time it is, of course, the unmarried who supplies the bulk of the fighting men but lor every hivi hid who ha.- gone to war there are halt-a dozen at least who have dodged tins clear duty under the shallowest and flimsiest ol pretexts. The voting man ,v ho goes away to prevent thote unspeakable Herman hordes from treating" Old England and New Zealand as thev have treated Belgium is doing to tiie'fullest ins duty to his mother and his sisters and ■o the sweetest girl he knows, not to menion the state that bred him and the Empire that guards it. He is the real thing •> worthy .ion of that endless line of worth v sires who through centuries and millenniums have slowly made a road for Freedom. As a type, he will marry at ieasor.ahle age and in the meatiwhOe is not concerning himself with dodging dutv. whatever that duty may 1 e. It the community thought of the familvlife in that clear and simple sense which would very speedily settle the population problem, it would set a huhelnr-tax going within a month after Parliament meets. In ere is no reason whatever whv every bachelor should not pay a graduated tax ranging- from 25 per Vent."to 50 per ten., of his total income, returnable to him in full if he man before 25, the return then graduating downward so that he would receive onlv a mall amount if he married after 30. It mav bo said that many bachelors cannot find wives, but it is remarkable now encouraging to tlle , search a tax rising to half a bachelor's earnings would be. In fact th» verv moment it is made worth a man's while to co a thing that has public opinion behind it, he manages to do it. As lon-' as public opin.on tolerates .and encourages the bachelor, the state will never attack his . pocket; the moment- public opinion swings against him the state will hasten to penalise him and the bachelor will hasten to disappear talking of bachelors, some of these pampered gentlemen argue that there are more men in the Dominion than women. Tina is not to the point, for it is normal for men to marry women younger than themselves and for girls to marry at an earner age than men. Even 'in Xew Zealand. therefore, a bachelor tax would not fall on any who could rind no Rachel if they searched like Jacob. Anvway. a generation or two ago in N>w Zealand, when old-fashioned ideas of home life prevailed and the sexes were really disproportionate. the Government—reflecting public opinion—stepped in with immigration remedies. If there were any taxed bachelors who could find no opportunity to join the envied ranks of the Benedicts, there would still he no injustice, for the state is upborne on the shoulders of the Family, and the bachelors are really parasitic on the social organisation, unless they pay to its maintenance ail thev earn more than their bare maintenance. 'I ho man who is the salt of the nation, its true Her; tiles, its unthought-nf hero, is the man who toils early and late, dumbly and uncomplainingly, because the supreme instincts in him drew him to build a home and to feed in that home the children who are the hope and life of the nation-to-come. That same man. given occasion, will fight instinctively and to the uttermost for the nation and the country in which his home is or is to be. He is the patriot, for when lie can fight no more the sons and the grandsons that he and his have given to the state will fight for it and work for it, acres after the bachelor has di nvn his hist pension payment or his last dividend. Yet this man has nothing for hLs toiling but a living, has mi spare cash, no margin for casual luxuries, no pocketful of change wherewith to solace his material desires. It is the bachelor who has these things—and why should he have them.' To say that he earns them is 1<) miss the point, for he only eai'ns and enjoys because he lives in a state which without the family and the familvman -mild not possibly exist. Other correspondents say that nowadays voting people need so rmn h. are not content with a little as their parents weie. will net liv- simply or take joy in simple plea Mires. This obviously is not wholly correct, because very many thousands do still marry voting and live simplv. It is evidently true, however, thai the pa'e is being set by the unmarried or the unfamilied —but this is surely due to a mistaken public opinion. Just as the individual Herman gradually reflects in his own mind and effects by his own acts the vie ions brutality of the "v.-ill-to-power" philosophy that has been drummed into him. so the New Zealander gradually reflects in his own thinking and effects by hi - own acts the equally vicious decadence oi the philosophy whit ignores the divine tieatv under which the Karth was given as an inheritance to the sons of men " Increase and multiply, replenish tin* eaith and subdue it."' was the first commandment given to world-wanderine men. I'ntil we accept it a'jaiii and believe i' again. as our forefathers a-.tilted it and be'ievcd it. we shall have no pubb. opinion tao.iblo r' reest.<iblishi'ig the Family and immortalising the state. And. somehow, if seems to many that all wi.o piojess and call themselves Christians should have something to -av and to d'> in the leviving of the old faith and in the foi mat ion of a healthy and lioimal public opinion. Onlv one great Church appears to enter a protest, as a voice crying in the wilderness. . against the sacrifice <if national and racial futures upon the altar of expedient;.. Presumably there are reasons for this indifference of the . hni'the; and perhaps it i.-- archaic to sum 11 it the population problem ton. em? then). Yet our forefather* would have -aid that although a nation gambles it i.i'v be forgiven, and although ; t is drunken it may lie forgiven, and although it plants groves to Ashtorotli it may h -1 forgiven, but that if it turns its back upon the. Family and denies children to the state, without doubt it shall perish everlastingly.