Taranaki Herald. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1910. RACE PRESERVATION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14348, 28 October 1910, Page 2

Taranaki Herald. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1910. RACE PRESERVATION.

A question of great importance and of as great difficulty is raised by Canon Mao Murray in the report of St. Mary’s Homes at 0 taint b.u, referred to in our telegrams yesterday. Wo refer to the problem of dealing with the feebleminded and otherwise degenerate members of the community. The reverend gentleman stated in his report that “in this Dominion a feeble-minded woman may have six or eight feeble-minded illegitimate children quite incapable of taking care of themselves, and who in turn become the parents of a new generation of degenerate and feeble-minded offspring, each one a burden on the State.” The subject is one difficult to discuss freely in the columns of n family newspaper, but opportunely there reaches us from Dunedin some literature concerning the Eugenics Education Society of New Zealand. The objects of this society arc: (1) To set forth the national importance of eugenics in order to modify public opinion, and to create a sense of responsibility in respect of bringing all matters pertaining to human parenthood under the domination of eugenic ideals; (2) to spread a knowledge of the laws of heredity so far as they are surely known, and so far as that knowledge may affect the improvement of the race; and (3) to further eugenic teaching in the home, in the schools, and elsewhere. Eugenics, it may be mentioned, is the name given by Sir Francis Galton to the science of race culture. Its first object is to chock the birth rate of the unfit, instead of allowing them to come into being, though doomed in large numbers to perish prematurely. The second object is the improvement of the race by furthering the productivity of the fit by early marriages and healthful\bearing of their children. It is a somewhat curious fact that while we, as a fanning community, are at some pains to breed only sound, healthy, and wellformed animals, such as horses, cattle, sheep, etc., we pay scarcely any attention to similar matters in connection with the human race. We have, it is true, legislation to regulate the admission of immigrants to the Dominion, to prevent undesirables and degenerates coming in, but the regulations are not nearly so stringent as those enforced in regard to animals. Within our own borders, however, there is little or no effort to prevent the perpetuation of those afflicted by feeblemindedness, hereditary disease, habitual criminality, and pauperism. Sir Francis Galton has declared that a democracy cannot endure unless it he composed of able citizens; therefore it must in self-defence withstand the free introduction of degenerate, stock. The difficulty is, however, to put this principle into practice, and here Dr, 0. W. Salechy, in his “Parenthood and Race Culture, gives a lead. He rejects the idea of the human stud farm, the help of surgery, and the use of the lethal chamber, aiming rather at creating a national sentiment upon the subject, which shall amount to a religious impulse to make proper parenthood at once (he aim and ideal of tile individual and the true test of citizenship. His chief hope lies in the education of the children, the early inculcation into the minds of the hoys and girls of the nature of the sacred powers which lie latent within them. Thai is what may be termed the positive side of eugenics, but there is a negative side which ought not to he neglected. In illustration of Canon MncMwrray’s remarks quoted above wo may refer to a statement made by n speaker at a meeting in Dunedin sonic weeks agffl, to the effect that a woman well known as being insane had

a family of nine children. It may not necessarily follow that these children will develop insanity, yet it seems a terrible risk for the community to run, such a risk as it would endeavour to avoid in connection with its animals. A great deal more might he written, but, as we have already said, it is a difficult question to deal with in the columns of a daily newspaper. Should any of our readers desire to learn more of the science of eugenics, no doubt Professor Benham, of Dunedin, president of the Eugenics Education Society, or Miss L. Macgeorge, its hon. secretary, will he pleased to help them.