The Sun TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1914. COMMONSENSE REGARDING THE BIRTH RATE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 135, 14 July 1914, Page 6

The Sun TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1914. COMMONSENSE REGARDING THE BIRTH RATE.

There is a lull in the birth rate controversy, and one or two careful observers have been taking advantage of it to present some facts concerning the population question that will come as at surprise to eugenists and others who have been sounding the lorld timbrel of . alarm ever since Mr Roosevelt pointed the finger of scorn at' Australia's and New Zealand's empty cradles. At a recent meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, Dr C. V. Drysdale read all exhaustive paper on and the birtH rate, and illustrated his remarks with graphs showing the birth rate, the death rate, and the infantile mortality rate in various parts of the world. The paper is published in extenso in the journal of the institute, and anyone reading it will speedly discover how Dr Drysdale proves beyond all doubt that the countries with low birth rates, so far from being in danger of depopulation, are in a healthier, condition, and are producing a more robust population than those countries with high birth rates. The..mistake commonly made by persons lamenting a decline in the birth rate is that they neglect altogether the study of the death rate. A high birth rate is invariably accompanied by a high death rate, particularly amongst infants, and the net result is less satisfactory than a low birth rate, with a correspondingly low death rate. The moat striking instance quoted by Dr Drysdale is that of the Netherlands. In 1881 an organisation was formed in Amsterdam, and warmly supported by j the Government, having for' its , direct object the reduction of the birtji rate, especially amongst the poor. It conducted an energetic propsiganda in favour of smtill families among the poorer classes, whose means 'did not permit them to rear large families comfortably. In 1895 its work was so appreciated I that it was approved by Royal Decree as one of the societies of public utility. I To-day it is a large and flourishing association, with medical and other ! helpers in all the great Centres. The result has been a steady and rapid fall in the birth rate, but the death rate has fallen much more rapidly, till it has reached 12.3 per thousand —the lowest in Europe; and the natural increase has reached 15.7 per thousand, the highest in Europe. In fact, Amsterdam, and The Hague are returned by the British Registrar-General for 1912 as having the lowest general and infantile mortality of all the great cities of the world. The effect on the physical and economic condition of the people appears to be equally pronounced. There are abundant signs of prosperity; slums are non-existent; the proportion of army recruits over sft 7in has increased from 24.5 per cent, to 47.5, and the average height of the Dutch people has increased by four inches in the last 50 years. Russia is often quoted as a country with such a high birth rate as to be a menace to the rest of Europe. But Dr Drysdale points out that its death rate aiid infantile mortality rate are the highest in Euroj>e, and the natural increase in New Zealand, which Mr Roosevelt held up as a shocking example of a country t-liat; was committing race suicide, is higher in proportion. Persons who have apprehensions regarding the yellow peril may also find reassurance in the fact that Japan, which raised its birth rate from 26 to -ii} per thousand between 1891 and 1910, has such an appalling death rate that the natural increase is only 12.5 per thousand, as against 16 or 17 in Australia and New Zealand. In the discussion which followed the reading of Dr Drysdale's "paper, Dr C. W. Saleebv, the enthusiastic eugenist, recalled an observation of Darwin's that is pregnant with meaning for the advocates of liigh birth rates. Darwin pointed out long ago that the petrel, which is probably the most numerous bird in the whole world, only lays one egg—but it. takes care of that egg.