NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20600, 26 June 1930, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

DIMINISHING RETURNS. The possibility that social economy may be subject to some general law analogous to the law of diminishing returns in material affairs is suggested by Mr. J. T. Adams, in Harper's Magazine. One of his illustrations is tho cost of rearing children—medical care, education, mental and physical training. " There was a point up to which these now advantages were clear gain," he says, " but a point was reached at which the added cost has resulted not in better and happier children but in many a family not being able to afford one. By trying to make the child, like the opera, too fine and luxurious, it has in all too many cases ceased to exist at all." The participation of women in business is related to the other problem. " For a while it seemed all clear gain that the unmarried woman not financially independent should have the whole business field open to her. As business opportunity for those who needed it became wider, more and more flocked to offices. The competition for jobs with men became keener, and as married women added their eamings to those of their husbands, the standard of living in such households was raised. The burden on tho man who was trying to 'support a home singlehanded in competition with the ' twoworker ' homes became greater. It may be asked, for the women themselves, whether the point is not being reached at which tho law is beginning to work. The lower type that used to do household work is not only competing with the cheaper-paid type of man in factory or office, but has thrown the manual labour of the household, which she used to do, on tho higher-type woman who is capable, given time -and of doing something more worth while for social life as a whole than cooking and cleaning. There would seem to bo already clearly indicated the working of the law and tho fact that there is a point somewhere at which the gain to. woman of having business open to her will be offset by the loss."

/ CLASS GOVERNMENT. " If we have government solely by an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or an upper class, there will be evils. It is obvious that there will be gain if other classes or interests have representation," says Mr. Adams. " With universal suffrage, however, the control of votes lies with the labouring class, which is the most numerous. As this class comes to realise and exert its power, the legislation becomes again class legislation, of which we have a glaring example in the steadily widening and increasing dole in England. What we do is to substitute one class for another, the so : called lower for tho socalled upper. Both classes when in power will unconsciously think in terms of their own class, but the upper class is bound to have a bettor understanding of tho extreme complexity of modern civilisation, and the exercise of their power has limits in the very numbers of the lower class. Somewhere along the line increased representation was an all-round gain, but wo reach the point where the law begins to work, and increased representation, instead of doing away with the ovils of a class government, begins to substitute the ovils of government by another, and on tho whole, for governing purposes, a less able class." THE WORLD'S . LATION. "Tho decline of tho ilrth-rato is a recent phenomenon—a matter of not much more than half a century. But tho population of the world continues to increase rapidly—perhaps at a rate of from 12 to 20 millions per annum," says Mr. J. A. Lindsay, of Belfast University, in a contribution to Scientia, an international scientific review. "Tho world population in tho year 1000 was approximately 850 millions, in 1900 approximately 1750 millions. Tho three principal checks to the increase of population aro disease, famine and war, but it would seem probable that they will bo much less potent in the future than they have been in tho past. Professor Gregory read a paper at the Toronto meeting of tho British Association in 1924, in which ho calculated that, if the present rate of increase of population continues, tho limit of subsistence, i.e., of a sufficient food supply, will be reached in 120 years and that in the year 3000 there will bo only standing room! But tho gloomy prognostications of Professor Grogory are not likely to bo fulfilled. Population, which in recent times has shown an abnormal increase, may at some not very remote period show an abnormal decrease. Whether tho present decline in tho birthrate is a harbinger of this time cannot bo affirmed with confidence. Now methods of agriculturo may be developed. Science, which has given us so many surprises in those days, may provide us with now methods of increasing our food supplies. Tho habits of man may change, . . . Man is tending to become a town-dweller. How far this is compatible with tho vigour of the stock and tho permanent good of tho race is an obscure problem and the data for its solution are still scanty. Science teaches that adaptation to environment is the key of life. It romains to be seen whether man can adapt himself to the demands and conditions of that stage of development at which he has arrived."