AUSTRALIAN BIRTHRATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16600, 25 January 1916, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN BIRTHRATE

A SERIOUS PROBLEM. SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. Dr Richard Arthur writes to tho Sydney Daily Telegraph:— " The most serious question Australia will have to faco after tho war will bo that of population. Even in peaoo time tho rato of increase, whether from natural increase or immigration, was slow and, 6ince tho war, various factors, either limiting the increase or leading to actual decrease, have emerged. The chief of theso is tho withdrawal from social life of a large proportion of men of the marriageable age. Many of these will never return to Australia, others will return maimed and dependent, and even those who do eventually marry •will, in many cases, do so some years later than they would have in other circumstancee. "Theso things must make their elfect felt in the birth-rate; in fact, they have already begun to do so in a lessened number of births all over Australia. And it is certain that several years hence this elfect will be even moro marked. And it must not be anticipated that any deficiency in this respect will bo made up by immigration. Whence is the immigration to come? It is true that wo oould get plenty of female immigrants from Great Britain, but we do not want them now. We require young men to fill up tho depleted ranks of our primary producers and to be husbands for our daughters. But these young men are the very section of her population that the Mother Country cannot spare. Her need of them will bo as great as oure, and it would be unpatriotic to seek to attract them here. France and Belgium are equally closed to us, and German or Austrian newcomers would bo as welcome as lepers. " First of all, then, we must seek to encourage early, though not improvident, marriage. Among the better-to-do classes marriage is often postponed until an income sufficient to maintain a certain social standard can bo obtained. The remedy for this is a general simplification of living. If a young couple cannot be content to start life in a small house, with no elaborate furnishings, and with no consequent great exnenso in upkeep, they may accelerate their marriage by years. Their parents should consent gladly to this instead of opposing it, as is often done. In this regard it would be desirablo that certain banks and financial institutions which place restrictions on tho marriage of their employees should withdraw these, or raise the salaries they pay. "Further, we must do' everything we can to make easy the possibility of marriage for returned soldiers, even in cases where they liave lost limbs, or been otherwise partially disabled. Tlieso men who have fought and suffered for us should not be denied the privilege of fatherhood simply because their earning capacity has been diminished by their service to the nation. They should either be placed m positions, the duties of which are within their power, and the salary sufficient to marry on, or their pensions should be supplemented in the event of their marrying and having_ children by an amount adequate for the maintenance of wife and family. " And this raises the further question if the time is not ripe to consider the question £ endowment 0 f parenthood by the State. The principle of a minimum wage has been reoognised. This means practically that every worker in a given occupation receives the same remuneration whether he be a smglo man or a married man with a large family. The system may be a fair one from one point of view', but from another it is grossly inequitable. The bachelor who has only himself to maintain is comparatively well off on £2 14s or £3 a week, while the man with a family can barely procure the necessaries of life on the same wage. " In a country like Australia, where there is such bitter need for more population, it would be quito just from the national standpoint to require those who shirk the duty of having children to contribute to the maintenance of other people's children. Thus an income tax of 10 per cent, on single men, and 5 per cent, on married men, levied without exemptions on all net incomes over £78 a year, should produce enough to pay 5s a week for every child below the age of 14 years. This may not seem a largo 6um, but to the mother of a family of six children 30b extra each week to spend on their food would bo a perfect godsend. This proposal may appear crude and unworkable, but it is certain that the position will have to be faced at a no-distant date."