OUR BABIES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16506, 6 August 1919, Page 9

OUR BABIES.

(By “Hygeia.”) * “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” 1 Published under the auspices of the 1 Royal (N.Z.) Society for the Health ol 1 Women and Children. Now Plymouth • X’lunkot Nurse Williams. Hon. Secretary, Mrs Sydney Allen, New Plymouth. Stratton! : Piuukct Nurse Wake. Hon. ’ Secretary, Mrs. L. Ricra, Juliet Street. Hawcra; Plunket Nurse Dlx. Hon Secretary, Mrs. M. J. Jauson, Box 22. THE POPULATION QUESTION. Last week wo gave the New Zealand and British birth agd death statistics for IDE?, showing the extremely low birth-rates in each country. The high death-rates were duo to the worldwide influenza epidemic. In the last qiyirtor of 1918 there were actually more deaths than births in England. This week wo draw attention to a chart (recently received from London) prepared by Dr. Truby King, contrasting'the infantile birth and death-rates of Eastern peoples with those of Western races. Wo are sorry it is impossible to reproduce tho chart itself in this column because a graphic representation is always more illuminating than a mere description. However, wo shall try to show what the chart sets forth. TABLE SHOWING BIRTHS'PER 1000 PEOPLE, ETC. BEFORE THE WAR. Eastern Peoples, 1000 Millions. C «§" -S jj y> | «S. 2 I g 553 a Eg I la kS w c2 Russia 44 II 39 248 Balkans, etc 40 10 Eo 163 Japan (India, China, etc?) ... 34 5 29 154 Western Peoples, 400 Millions. Austro-Gormany... 29 4.4 24.6 160 Australia 28 2 26 71 New Zealand ... 26 1.5 24.5 51 United States ... 25 2.4 22.6 100 Canada (Ontario) 24 28 21.2 103 Great Britain ... 24 2.8 21.2 104 Franco 19 1.6 17.4 78' United States (native born 16 1.5 14.5 95 DURING THE WAR, 1917. Great Britain ... 18 2 16 103 London 18 2 16 103 Edinburgh 15 2 13 148 Dunedin (N.Z.) ... 24 .9 23.1 40 New Zealand 26 1 25 43 THE SAFETY LINE. Experts have laid it down that 34 births for every 1000 people (the rate in Japan before the war) may be. regarded as tho lowest safety lino for assuring reasonable national progress. However, with a lower infantile deathrate (snob as most civilised countries are now striving for), 30 births per 1000 people might suffice. If wo examine the figures given above wo find that only tho Eastern peoples come up to tho safety lino. The groat Western races wore'already below the safety standard of 30 births per 1000 people before tho war, and the fact that the available figures for 1917 show a drop of six for Great Britain would lead ono to expect that the other Western peoples engaged in tho war would also have a considerably lessened number of births. In 1918 the New Zealand births had dropped from 28,182 (1917) to 25,867, but this was mainly duo to the war, and we hope this year to surpass any previous record. ■ Our readers will recognise how essential this is if wo are to maintain our position and inherit the land so dearly bought by the sacrifice of many of our best and bravest. We must try to reach the safety lino, and at the same time wo must try to rear our children in the best wav, so that they may bo sound—bodily, mentally, morally, and spiritually sound. Remember that our host immigrants are strong, healthy babies. The following letterpress which completes the chart is of special moment at the present time, and gives food for careful study and much thought: REMARKS BY DR. TRUBY KING. The Pacific. “There are no longer separate Hemispheres—the world is now one.” Tho habitable English-speaking territories i nor bmordering on the Pacific are at least double as extensive ns the areas bordering on the Atlantic. The destiny of England and of the whole Empire becomes continually more and more intimately associated with tho New World and cur Overseas Dominions. A century ago tho Pacific area contained a mere' handful of English people. To-day tho Pacific has half-a-dozen great English-speaking cities with populations which have reached, or are approaching, from half a million to a million inhabitants each. Of late years tho one serious drag on maintaining the splendid pioneering and development progress of the past in these new lands lias been an ominous decline in the size of families and tho consequent dwindling of natural increase of population. This and tho modern ■ tendency to shirk country life and crowd into cities is affecting both the quantity and quality of the race—tho mimber'and stamina of our population—and thus puts a cheek on the full development of our natural resources in every direction. Tho only way to stem this evil is to tackle the population question seriously, and knock out the couses of national deterioration, sterility and decay—the factors which undermined and overthrew all the j civilisation and great Empires of the j past. . Wo shall continue this next week.