BRITAIN’S POPULATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27112, 21 June 1949, Page 5

BRITAIN’S POPULATION

Far-Reaching Recommendations for Control

ROYAL COMMISSION’S REPORT / t New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 9.55 p.m. ' LONDON, June 20. Britain’s future population prospects, planned “voluntary” parenthood, and far-reaching recommendations for controlling Britain’s population, including a Commonwealth examination of migration policies, are exhaustively dealt with in the 100,000-word report of the Royal Commission on population. The commission was appointed five years ago to examine facts relating to present population trends in Britain, to investigate the causes of these trends and their probable consequences, and to consider measures that should be taken in the national interest to influence population trends. , The main recommendations, which support planned families, propose higher children’s allowances, and income tax relief for , v parents, declare that there is no danger of moving into a worldwithout children and express the view that a replacement size family is desirable for Britain. . » ' V, 1

The commission urges planned parenthood and expert advice on contraception as Britain’s official family policy. “ We set out the view that the public policy should be based on the acceptance of voluntary parenthood and of contraception as one of the means of achieving it. It is primarily designed to secure that children come when parents want them.” The commission recommends that giving advice on contraception to married persons who want it should be accepted as the duty of the National Health Service. Restrictions on giving such. advice by public authority clinics should be removed. The commission says it received no evidence from any quarter that voluntary parenthood was regarded as improper or that a married woman should conceive as often as “ nature ” determined.

of higher living standards had led some to argue that- the highey the standard of living the lower was likely to pe the birth rate. This would continue unless higher standards of living were accompanied by adjustments that would reduce the “advantages enjoyed by non-parents over parents, and of children of smrll families over those of larger families: Discussing future prospects, the commission predicts that over the next 15 years the numbenDf young adults (15 to 39 years) is likely to decline by about 1,400,000, and the number of old people ■ (over 65 years) /will grow steadily over ' the next 30 years by at least 2,300,000. The population of working age is likely to remain", roughly constant for at least 30 years. If, as seems likely, death rates fall in future, the numbers of old people will greatly increase. Decline in Births - . The commission predicts that the number of annual births will almost certainly decline over the next "15 years because of the expected fall‘in marriages of young couples. The total population will probably go on growing for, at least one or two decades though the increase immigration apart—is not likely to exceed more than a few millions. The commission considers that the total numbers will reach the maximum about 1977, and thereafter begin a slow decline, h. The commission considers that among the inescapable problems presented by the trend of population are the effect on the Budget of increased numbers of old people at the same time as the numbers in working age groups are no longer increasing, the adjustment of industrial organisation and national policy to the fall in numbers of young adults, and the effects' of other changes in age distribution on housing, education, and other branches of social policy. The expected large increase in numbers of old people made it desirable that better use should be made of their productive capacity. Examining the desirability of trying to influence the future trend of population, the commission says the most important economic consideration was the pressure of the population on resources.-:-

Possible Objections

The only evidence on which doubt on this point might arise was that of representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. Those representatives made a distinction between confining intercourse to the period when conception would be unlikely and the use of mechanical methods which they condemned as sinful. Other persons had religious, aesthetic, or psychological objections to mechanical or chemical methods, but the general body of evidence showed that the growing proportion of responsible sections of the community saw nothing inherently wrong in them. There was no support for the view of medical representatives of the Roman Catholic Church that mechanical or chemical be harmful, physically or psychologically, and may affect the capacity of women to bear children. The commission contemplates -that, with the spread of effective knowledge of contraception, “ voluntary parenthood will become more or less universal.” Effect of High Living Standard The peculiar and unexpected effect of the great social advances achieved since the nineteenth century was that they either added to the costs of parenthood or in other ways emphasised the handicaps of relative to each other. This unexpected effect