THE DECREASING BIRTH-RATE.

NZ Truth, Issue 169, 12 September 1908, Page 6

THE DECREASING BIRTH-RATE.

Ackroyd Knows the Remedy.

Ackroyd, Socialist candidate for Christchurch. North, .has unusual , ideas about the diminishing birth-rate. As , be ; truly explained, with high intellectual development there is a marked ' diminution m the birth-rate, but a circumstance' not generally grasped was the fact that with intellectual development there was, m addition to a diminishing birth-rate, also a corresponding decrease m the death-rate, and the birth-rate fall was counterbalanced by the saving m corpses. Statistics showed the highest .• birth-rate amongst people of the lower classes, and not necessarily the lowest. Here again, there was . a corresponding decrease m the death-rate, so that the unusual number of corpses on the premises was a setoff to the influx of babies. It seemed to Ackroyd that with intellectual "deveioptnent man lost the capacity for populating the country. "Gam !" said a voice, "he knows what to do." Ackroyd thought not ; the 'man's intellectuality developed at the expense of his procreative powers. Under Socialism

THEY WOULD REGULATE THESJU . MATTERS.' If there were a shortage of population, measures would be taken, to increase ■ the' same: :If there were no neerl for extra population they wouldn't be such iools as to bring creatures into the world that couldn't be provided for.. "How will you do it?" asked a voice*; ''Now, that is what I. call an unfair . question," replied, Ackroyd, while, ladies on the fringe of the crowd hurried away. The speaker pointed out , that when . under Socialism man got all he wanted m the shape of creature comforts ithe 'merely.; animal - m him rwould be satisfied, iind -the p'opuJ'ation would increase. Breezy Jamieson remarked subsequently tfliat subjects like that would be better discussed m a closed hall than m the open air of the Square. "Let us have Socialism first," he remarked, "and those problems will solve themselves."