THE BIRTH RATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24449, 7 November 1940, Page 10

THE BIRTH RATE

DECLINE CAUSES CONCERN ENCOURAGEMENT OF LARGER, FAMILIES A SERIES OF SUGGESTIONS (Per United Press. Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, Nov. 6. Long-range steps to meet the imminence of a serious decline in New Zealand’s population were advocated by the Associated Chambers of Commerce to-night. One remit urged the encouragement of larger families and increased immigration, and another advocated more substantial taxation allowances for families. The remits were as follows: “That this conference again draws attention to the imminence of a serious decline in New Zealand’s population, which would be fraught with grave consequences and urges as a matter of immediate and vital importance that the Government set up a Royal Commission of experts or a similar non-party body to make a long-range survey and to formulate schemes regarding both the encouragement of larger families and the increasing of immigration on a substantial scale.” — (Canterbury.) “In order more equitably to distribute the burden of taxation as affecting the family man, this conference urges the Government to increase on a graduated scale the present children’s allowance for income tax purposes, and also to grant family concessions for the Social Security charge and National Security lax.”—(Hawera.) The whole thing was disquieting, commented Mr S. E. Mair (Canterbury). The 1936 census showed that there were 22,000 fewer children under 10 than there were in 1926. In 1936 there were 134,000 people between 20 and 24, and it was calculated that in 20 years there would be 117,000 or fewer. Some people might question immigration when the country was faced with the problem of rehabilitating the 'soldiers, but he suggested that it was part of the same problem. The factors which he considered should be investigated 'were family tax allowances, the sales tax, employment preferences, and rents.

Mr G. C. McCaul (Wellington) suggested that a special tax should be levied on unmarried people and on those with fewer than two children, the proceeds to be paid into a fund for the benefit of those with more than two children.