CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 May 1916, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

GERMAN BIRTH-RATE. In a general study of conditions in Germany during the war a writer in the IPetrograd Vyestnik Evropy—the Herald of Europe—gives the following interesting account of the effect of tile war on the birth-rate of Germany:—lf we do not count foreigners and defectives, there were in Germany on January 1, 1915, including the army and fleet, 10,500,000 men and 17,000,000 women between the ages of 17 and 00. The diversion to the army of an immense number of men naturally lowered the marriage-rate. In Berlin in April, 1915, there were celebrated only 1747 marriages, as against 2990 in April, 1914. In the last four months of 1914 5835 couple were married in Berlin, as against 8265 in the same months of the preceding year. The same tiling happened throughout the whole Empire. The excess of births over deaths in 1902 for the whole of Germany amounted to 12.7 per 1000 inhabitants; and -births amounted to 29.1 and the deaths to 16.4 per 1000. Parallel with the decrease in the death-rate in Germany during the last 15 years, the birthrate has decreased even more rapidly. In Prussia, for example, in the years from 1901 to 1913 the death-rate for each 10UU population fell from 37.4 to 2;1. The excess of births over deaths thus fell from 15.7 to 13.2. Thus the growth of the population began to slacken even before the war. Since the beginning of the war the diminution of the birth-rate by two-thirds, as a consequence of the transfer to the army of two-thirds of the marriageable men, would in itself mean an absolute diminution of amost 1,000,000 of the population in two years. To this must be added another 1,500,000 —those who during the two years were killed or died of their wounds, according to the average of the first half-year. This would mean a diminution of the population of Germany during two years of war to an extent that would require the normal increase of five years to make good. But in the years following the war the birthrate will be diminished by at least onesixth if we take into account the numbers of men killed and incapacitated. Russia, on the other hand, during these same seven years will increase bj 20,000,000, and German scientists compute that within a generation 300,000,000 Russians will face 90,000,000 Germans.