A BISHOP'S OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7984, 13 April 1904, Page 2

A BISHOP'S OPINION.

The Bishop of Melbourne (Dr Clark) t in his annual sermon to the Victorian Mothers' Union, took for his text : " The Sacred Duties of Motherhood." He declared that children were not a penalty nor a burden, bui a favour and a gift in "the heritage that cometh from the Lord." Those who were mothers should teach first to their daughters and then to everyone within their union the sacred duties of motherhood. Nothing the world had to give could compare with the sweet joy of ohildienj for, granted, that they brought with them care and thought, the need of prudence, and the daily toil of watchful anxiety in their early years, it was God's way of drawing up out of one's heart the deepest and tenderest devotion. Was there not a. cause why he should speak of those things? All that was most sacred in the home life had been openly made fcbe subject of a cold, calculating selfishness which declared itself in open words. He might well leave the subject where it had been placed in the past in the 6acred silence of reserve if it had not been discussed quite openly, both in private and in public. A great peril threatened this State in common with other countries. Were nearly twenty centuries of Christian civilisation to lead them to the unholy resolve to commit race suicide? For people could no longer conceal from themselves that such a peril threatened in the Commonwealth. The Government of a neighbouring State, marking the decline of the birth-rate, had set themselves to inquire first into the fact, and then into its causes. With pitiless logic had been demonstrated both the fact itself and its silent and wicked causes. The Commission had proposed some dozen remedies within the power of the Government to. apply, but they had finally confessed their powerlessness to -reach, the ultimate causes, which were to be found in moral deterioration, in the weakening of religious restraint, and in the free play given everywhere to selfisbnesß. They turned then to clergy and parents, and asked for their help in promoting the inculcation of religious principles in the young, and asserted that civilisation and progress must be based upon the religious character of the people, So long as Victoria continued to sow the wiud of secularism it must expect to reap the whirlwind of selfishness in it* citizens. They were invited to institute, in the name of their common Christian faith, a general crusade of such an impressive character as would arouse the conscience of married people to a recognition of the immorality of deliberately restricting the number of children to be born of them, to the degradation of the married state involved therein, and to the fact fchat history and science combined in teaching that national degradation and decay mast inevitably result from continuance of the practice. A MEDICAL SUGGESTION. The March number of the "Australasian Medical Gazette " has an article on the declining birth-rate, from which the following are extracts: — We consider the report of the Commission a masterpiece of exhaustive examination and investigation of a subject which, it is admitted on all hands, bristles with difficulties. Briefly, Commissioners have found, as a result of their investigations, that the decline of, the birthrate is due, " in very large measure, nob to any physical degeneration or lack of fertility in the present generation of Australian women, but to deliberate checking by various irtificial methods, thus nullifying one ol the main objects of. marriage. We must all heartily agree with the various suggestions made by the Commissioners with a view to checking the decline in the birthrate and the prevention of the present high rate of mortality among v infants, so that the normal rate of increase of population may be restored and maintained. But still it is doubtful how far these suggestive measures would succeed in their object, even if carried out to the letter. The use of all preventives in existence must be prohibited bylaw. . . . The true remedy, in our opinion, is one which can only be attained, if at all, with great difficulty. It must be instilled into the minds of young married women that barrenness is a disgrace and- a . sign of weakness. If a social-, stigma were attached to a woman who was known or believed to be deliberately attempting to • defeat the ends of married life, and it became the fashion to have large families, then we should hear no more about a declining birth-rate. This object might possibly be attained if some patrioticallyminded ladies took the matter up, and by the formation of mothers' leagues or some similar institutions endeavoured to educate the young womanhood of the community upon the moral and physical evil which resultß from the use of mean* to prevent conception. The glory of motherhood must^e emphasised. . ... I