THE FALLING BIRTH-RATE

Southland Times, Issue 23182, 24 April 1937, Page 13

THE FALLING BIRTH-RATE

Mr A. P. Herbert, MP. (Independent, Oxford University), whose two political platforms are the anomalies of closing hours and English divorce law, has written on the decline of the birth-rate, in Punch:— In 1937 was a rumour going round, That Income Tax was soon to be six shillings in the pound. The cost of education every season seemed to swell, And to everyone’s astonishment the population fell. They pulled down all the houses where the children used to crowd And built delightful blocks of flats where children weren’t allowed, And if father got a job there wasn’t anywhere to dwell, But to everyone’s astonishment the population fell. Five hundred brand-new motor-cars each morning rode the roads, And flashed about like comets or sat motionless as toads; Whichever course they took they made the public highway hell, And to everyone’s astonishment the population fell. Abroad to show that everyone was passionate for peace, All children under seven joined the army of police, The babies studied musketry while mother filled a shell, And all the nations wondered why the population fell. The world in short which never was extravagantly sane Developed all the signs of inflammation ' of the brain; The past was not encouraging, the future none could tell, And some of us were not surprised the population fell.