PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 2 March 1938, Page 1

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

THE SEX RATIO.—I. (By “Silent Peter”). Dear People,— t The vast experiments now being carried on by the race of mankind with itself as the subject of experimentation prove beyond a. doubt that to be born into the world alive is a far more dangerous adventure for a boy than for a girl. A learned professor has recently told the world that the only sure recipe for longevity is to make sure of being born a girl! Of children born, the proportions are 105 boys to 100 girls. This preponderance of boys continues till about fifteen years of age. From that year and onwards, however, as boys are more prone to death at all ages, because of being less resistant to disease and to other unfavorable conditions, the girls begin to equalise “the stronger sex” in numbers. SEX EQUALITY. From 15 to 25 years of age, the sexes tend to be equal in numbers', followed by a rapid diminution of males between 25 and 30 upwards; until at the. l'ipe age of 85 or more, there are twice as many women as men. In relation to the numerical strength of women, their political power is not by any means what it ought to be. When the numerical proportion of males is contrasted with that of females, it becomes clear that Nature regards the former as being of the lesser importance. Efficiency and economy would seem to be observed by the removal of the male, when once he has served his purpose. All the “sex equality” that Nature is concerned with is to see that an equal number of males and females are in existence at the best age of fertilisation. BIOLOGY VERSUS CUSTOM. Even in a democracy such as our own, where it is bad form to mention sex as an irresistible influence tending to stimulate the birth-rate, the fact that the sex ratio is equal only among those males and females who stand at the threshold of their reproductive prime may be remarked upon as being not without significance. The age group in which the sexes are equal in numbers consists of those who—biologically if not socially—are best equipped for ardent reproduction. It is now in keeping with the most refined of civilised customs to ignore this natural law. All social and economic ramifications tend to bring pressure to bear upon both males and females to postpone mating and parenthood to an age well beyond that which Nature herself has decreed shall he the best, the safest and the most fertile for the vital functions in question. MATERNAL MORTALITY. Population experts have recently disclosed the fact that the lowest mortality rates among mothers anij babies cccui' among families of three children horn at the very times which Nature originally ordained as being the best. However, the same experts also state that it is unfortunately just as true that only the lower-paid members of soeiety begin to have children at or before the age ol‘ twenty years. In those classes of the community in which both position and income are higher, it is a “ Civilised ’ ’ custom to postpone marriage and child-bearing. This unnatural and suicidal custom results in an alarming increase in maternal mortality and in still-births.