LOW BIRTH RATE

Opunake Times, 16 August 1932, Page 4

LOW BIRTH RATE

AUSTRALIAN RECORDS SOME LARGE FAMILIES HEART DISEASE AND DEATH The vital statistics recently published here have provided material for some interesting discussions in the newspapers, 'mere lias been a definite fall in the birth rate in New South Wales, for in 1931, though the population of the State was 2,520,000 only the same number of children were born as in 1910, when the population was only 1,600,000. In other words, about two and a half million here multiplied last year only at the rate at which one and a half million multiplied 20 years ago. As a set'off to these figures, instances of large families are quoted. At Wiiberforce, in the Hawkesbury district, there are four families —unfortunately all on the dole —who can claim 56 children between them, and there are 8 families with 9 children each. At another country village, the Vineyards, a few miles away one family has 14 children, another has 16 and three have 11 each. The Government Statistician quotes quite a large number of cases of children born to women of over 50 and men over 70 years of age—in one instance the mother was 55 years old and the jubilant father was 89! But in Sydney itself, the interest seems to centre rather in mortality figures than in birth statistics. For the past 10 years Sydney has maintained pride of place as recording “the lowest death rate of any city in the world having a population exceeding half a million.” This record stills holds and the medical authorities attribute it chiefly to “the wonderful climate, open spaces, and the equal distribution of sunlight.” Some people seem to be disquieted by the official information that the proportion of people who die from affections of the heart in this city has risen from 8 per cent in 1903 to 21 per cent in 1931. But there is consolation to be found in the assurance offered by a leading doctor that “the increasing percentage of heart deaths is simply due to the fact that hearts now hang on later and later, and eventually fail in people who, in unhealthier ages, died of some infectious disease before 40.’’ This, no doubt, is true in many cities beside Sydney, and it illustrates once more the extent to which civilisation has modified that “survival of the fittest”, which was the primary principle of physiological development in primitive times.