A COUNTRY OF THE AGED

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1929, Page 11

A COUNTRY OF THE AGED

A FAMINE IN YOUTH. ■"■ —■ ■ ,•? ■'( POSITION OF BRITAIN. Unknowm to most of us, we are nearing the greatest social change that this country has ever seen. Ahead, and not far ahead, looms a famine in youth. By 1930 will begin a shortage of adolescents that will ultimately have far-reaching effects, says a writer in Tit-Bits. • Owing to the war—which, it is calculated, doomed 25,000,000 women in Europe to lifelong -. spinsterhood —and still more to the influenza epidemic that followed it, as well as to other factors, there has been a great falling off in the number of children “coming on ? ’ in this country. Four years ago the Board of Education reported that- there were a million fewer children in our elementary schools than there were before the war, and since then the decrease has gone on steadily at the rate of 100,000 a year. . . OUR BIRTH-RATE PUZZLE. This means that in ten years our children of school age become fewer by a number about equal to the total population of Liverpool, and that in each succeeding year, the decrease has been added to by about as many as there are in Newport, Mon., or Rochdale. Yet with the heavy fall in the number of there has., been a great, increase in the number of, twins, and. triplets born. Till a fdw years " ago multiple births were curiously localised. A certain street in Deptford used to claim the distinction of being the quarter in which most twins, were born, and not long ago there were in Cherry Grove, on the outskirts of Lincoln, a pair of twins to every‘third house. The same peculiarity extended to counties. Lancashire came first for twins, Liverpool making the largest contribution and then followed London, with Yorkshire a poor third. But during the last five years multiple births have increased everywhere, even in counties where twins used to be rare. At several London hospitals the number of twins born this year will probably constitute a record, , This tendency to multiple births is not confined to Britain. It exists in all parts of the civilised world and the scientists are unable to account for the phenomenon. Still, a famine in youth is inevitable, and its effects, which will include a great if not alarming, decrease in the number of recruits for the labour market, will be intensified by an increase in the number of elderly people. \ Most elderly people wore born at a time when the birth rate was going up by leaps and bounds, and for years the standard of health has been improving, with a consequent reduction in the death rate. So the proportion of persons who reach 70 is steadily increasing. AN ARMY O FPENSIONERS. When will it remain constant or nearly so? According to calculations made by the Government auditor for old-age pension purposes, the number of persons over 70 will increase as follows: 1931, 1,940,000; 1941, 2,436,000; 1951, 3,030,000. App’rently, therefore, the army of people over 70 will grow for many years. At all events, great changes in our population are close at hand. In it youth will bulk less and age more, and Sir Robert Blair has estimated that by 1932 there will be twa million fewer workers than there would have been under the old conditions. Will life be easier or harder for youth? How will the bigger proportion *of the aged and non-productivo element of the population affect those who are beginning the.battle of life? .