The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1911. NATIONAL FITNESS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14458, 2 June 1911, Page 4

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1911. NATIONAL FITNESS.

In the course of his presidential address to tlie Chamber of Commerce on "Wednesday Mr Cray drew attention to two jjTeal, national dangers which beset New Zealand, in common wiih other Enf>-lish-spenkin<>' countries. They were the lowupsk of the birthrate, as revealed by the recent census, and (lie jrrowinjr percentage of until. as .shown by <> : aol and mental hospital statistics. "Lest the people perish," whose lot is favoured by the peace and sunshine of these bounteous isles, the warning which he uttered in impressive words, and which many hi<>h authorities have expressed before him, should be seriously considered by every man and .woman. It is a coincidence that in the same issue in which we reported Mr Cray's remarks on tlie limitation of the birthrate in New Zealand, we published also a cable message which staled that leaders of religion and leaders of thought in Great Britain have issued a " public morals " manifesto, doalnjy with the questions of the birthrate and pernicious literature, and urning

(be necessity of education, iji thl duties of parenthood. The? mani i'eslo declares that " the tenden. nics of the iiff« make it imperative that tho young should be taught high conceptions of marriage." Mx Cray suggested drastic means, for whioh it is not probable (ho sontiment of tJio community is yet ripe, for dealing with the evil of the increase of tlio uiifit, but this danger could be viewed with loss alarm if it were not for tho other ovil of the limitotion of tho fit. A few weeks ago Dr Winslow Forbes, one of the world's chief authorities on insanity, quoted figures for Great Britain far more terrible than those which Mr Cray adduced from the crimo and lunacy records of New Zealand. He sttited that whereat) in 1850 there was one lunatic in every 53C of the ontira population, at the present time the ratio was one in every 277. There was fin average annual increase of lunaoy during the last decade'of ~394. "If this inoreaso wont on, the time was not far distant when there would be more lunatics than sane person's in the world." But he did not surest the purely physical measures of prevention which were advised by Mr Cray. After lamenting that there were 149,000 mentally defective persons in Great Britain at the present time uncertified, unprotected, at large, and uucon* trolled, he went on to advocate the efficiency of "suggestion" as a method of reclaiming many of these cases, espooially drunkards, morphia maniacs, and • juvenile moral delinquents, and to express his approval of the establishment of a public psycho-therapeutic, or "suggestion" hospital in London.

'As regards the wider question of the deliberate limitation of the fit, Mr Cray's grave warning may be strengthened by quotation from a most weighty and sober article written by ex-President Roosevelt on this subject in the American " Outlook," of which he is the associate editor, ofAprit Bth. Mr Itoosevelt quotes Australia and Ncw_ Zealand in his article as countries where " there is no warrant whatever in economic conditions for alimitation of the birthrate," and'sueli limitation, therefore, is entirely/tho effect of selfishness. As Mr Cray referred to the " national conscience of New Zealand," Mr Roosevelt appeals to tho " New England conscience," and he says truly " It is utterly vain, it is a shameful tiling, to be conscientious about minor and relatively unimportant matters, and yet unconscientious about one great and all important matter." The low birthrate in America he declares "is due to coldness, to selfishness, to love of ease, to shrinking from risk, to an utter and pitiful failure in sense of perspective and in power of weighing what really makes the highest joy, and to a rooting out of the sense of duty or a twisting of that sense into improper channels." After pointing out that, if tho present rata of decrease in the birthrato continues, the United Stato3 will have become stationary in population by the middle of this cenand eo will the EnglishEmpire, he demolishes a popular argument in these words:—" To quiet their uneasy consciences, cheap and shallow man and women, when confronted with these facts, answer that 'quality is better than quantity,' and that decrease of numbers will mean increase in individual prosperity. It is false. When quantity falls off, thanks to wilful sterility, the quality will go down, too. During the half century in which France has remained nearly stationary, while Germany has nearly doubled in population, the average of individual prosperity lias grown much faster in Germany than in France; n7id social and industrial unrest and discontent have grown faster in Franco than in Germany." We would specially draw attention to his final words, as wise as they are eloquent and moving:—

" Our appeal must Ijc not only to the intellect ami tho reason, it must be to tlie heart and tliu conscience.

in this great fundamental matter, vital to tlio life of the whole nation, our appeal must ho to the plain pccple, to tho average man and tliu average woman ; and fundamentally it must lie an appeal to character, an earnest prayer that in the souls of all of us the sense of duty may growl ii*d not dwindle, and may be guidw by wisdom and inspired by. courage. We honour the good man and the avail woman who do their duty; and ahnvo all others we honour the wife and mother, for she is tho high priestess of the race, wbo bears in her strong and tender arm's the bui-Jen of the destinies of mankind."