THE POPULATION QUESTION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1424, 15 June 1899, Page 17

THE POPULATION QUESTION.

Tho May number cf “The Malthusian,” a Louden publication devoted to the “cult” of Mai thus, reprints in full the article that appeared in the “New Zealand Times” some two or three months ago, under the heading “An Ominous Tendency,” on the subject of the declining birth-rate in this country, and which, it may be remembered, evoked a long and spirited discussion in our correspondence columns. Tire New Zealand correspondent who forwarded the article to “The Malthusian” expresses his delight at having seen “in such a high-class paper” as tho “New Zealand Times” reference to the undoubted facts connected with the fall in the birth-rate. He makes light of the “rebuking tendency” of this journal’s remarks, and adds:—“The present young women, single as well as married, in New Zealand have experienced, and are more and more realising, how much men fight shy of married life from fear of large families. I am satisfied, from minor indications, that it is really becoming a woman’s question, and that they are on the track cf solving it, and proving that early marriages and small families are practicable.” “Tlie Malthusian” reproduces a, letter contributed to our columns by Mr James Kenworthy, and promises to republish other letters in future issues. Tlie editor of “The Malthusian” attributes the declining birth-rate in this colony to tlie extension of the political franchise to women, and alleges that such a result was predicted by J. S. Mill in his “Principles of Political Economy.”