RACE REPATRIATIO

Otago Witness, Issue 3511, 28 June 1921, Page 22

RACE REPATRIATIO

LOW BIRTH RATE AND SMALL FAMILIES. Preaching at St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday-, Canon Neviil said that one of the things which struck those who had read their Bibles and studied modern history vvas the extraordinary vitality and persistency of the Jewish race m all ages and in all circumstances. Alongside their vitality was a strength of religious conviction which was a part of themselves. It was perfectly true that their national faith was accompanied by a keen realisation of the power of wealth, but it was the power they realised —they- saw, as other races had not seen, that money power to-day meant all other power too. But, with the Jew the idea of power was not altogether materialistic as it was with the modern religion.!.'.-s dealer in money. There was always before their eyes, not only the individual as in our business and politics of to-day, but above all this the ideal of the race. Vie all agreed that the race could not continue wihout children, but up to to-day the mortality rate of babies in New Zealand had been- as bad as it could be. In the great war, however, we began to realise what children really meant more than wo had ever realised it before. And we also realised that the children must be strong and healthy, as well as numerous—that there should never be again such a dismal tale of physical failures as we heSrd of in the war years. That in a few words was the purpose of the Society for the Protection of Women -and Children —to secure the health of the future nation. Now it was an obvious and well known fact that the well-to-do classes usually had small families, and that many poor people often had large ones, but we did not so often notice the result, that the well-to-do family very often died out altogether, and in the end made way for its poorer competitor. in I he United States the birth rate among tho Anglo-Saxons was rapidly falling owing to the selfish comfort and wealth of this particular class, and the German Pole and the Italian, all people with many children, were teplacing them to-day-. In New Zealand we were met by a problem of much the same kind though different in degree. Many of us realised what children meant, but infant mortality below a certain age was very high; and if labourers happened to have large families they were frankly told that they had no business to have them; but that they should imitate thenbetters and artificially restrict their growth of population. It was also objected that our low birth rate was balanced by the low death rate. That was a perfectly true statement as far as it. went, but it simply meant that our ideal was a nation of old men and women. What we were thus losing on one band our Government’s policy was trying to replace with the other. Elaborate schemes were worked out to introduce thousands of British subjects into the country. That in itself was all very- well, but would immigration bo anything like necessary it" our birth rate was as it ought to he? Education had brought about one thing which might be good or bad, —a desire for more refinement and comfort, better houses, better food and clothes, all good in themselves, but if they meant that we were going to sacrifice (he future for the present, it was extremely bad for us now and worse for posterity-. So strong was this desire for more money and comfort, that to-day preventives were in use almost universally-, both to limit the size of the family and to cover illicit relations of the sexes. Theie was only one result in the long run for such a scheme of life as this, and that was the ultimate extinction of the race. The Society for the Protection of Women and Children, and Mrs Baker particularly, had brought forward a resolution asking that our Government should take steps to help our labourers who had more than three children. Nobody could possibly know, except those who had gone through the experience, what the finding of boots, clothing, and food for a large family at the present price of things-, books, especially, really meant. Under post-war prices the problem hud turned into an actual nightmare, and the wonder was that a labourer could find any shoes or clothes at all for a largo family—all ho could do was just to find them necessary food. This condition of things lrcessurilv led to physical, and even moral, deterioration in the children --under-fed children grew up with half a constitution. Then, when the call of the country came in a great war. these children helped to swell the army of the rejected. The plea of selfishness was that, by helping people with large families, we were perpetuating poverty and pauperising the people. The society had no wish to do either, but it felt most strongly that the first duty of the Government was towards its own future citizens; —in other words that we must see that the British race in these islands grew up strong and healthy and fit to do its work in the world. New Zealanders might- be, and no doubt were, a highly educated race, but it was just possible” that they might be educating themselves out of existence. If all races in the world were equally educated with themselves—and had the same desire for money and comfort —they might survive. When they looked into the world around them, and saw the yellow and brown races in China and Japan sperading down through the East Indies and the Pacific, always closer to Australia and New Zealand, thrusting out the Malay and tho Kanaka, they realised the peril, but not its cure. It was not war —it was the possibility of being overwhelmed by tho birth-rate of races with a lower ideal of life and education which was the phantom to he exorcised by the growth of the white race. Life, as Christians believed, was the gift of the Divine Giver of Life. But we could not draw a blank cheque on the Almighty, and if we wasted or misused that gift we should, like many another race gone before us in tho uncounted past, perish and our memory .. I > <-1 nE I M' ri tl tn 11 < l ?r 11 >l' i'.