RUSSIA’S BIRTH RATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 182, 6 August 1935, Page 8

RUSSIA’S BIRTH RATE

Russia’s natural increase of population, according to recent statistics, last year reached the tremendous figure of 4,500 000, the highest yearly gain for any one year in its history. The Kremlin, far from being worried over this sharp increase, asserts, on the contrary, that occupying one-sixth of the . globe’s surface, and possessing boundless untapped natural resources, Russia is able to support additional hndreds of millions. “'The higher our birth-rate,” Soviet leaders say, “the more quickly shall we be able to wrest from our soil its vast potential wealth and place it at the service of our people.” There are several factors which suggest that there will l>c a further rise in the Soviet Union’s already high birthrate. These include, first, the possibility of additional gains in the standard of living, and secondly, the special State, regulations which provide a month's vacation, with pa, before and after childbirth to women employed in indu.-try—-a regulation that only re ccntlv has been extended to peasant' women, who constitute nearly 80 per cent, of Russian’s womanhood. During the last ten years the population in Russia has inc eased_by 20,000,000. The Retiring Kiwi 'l’llat rare native of New Zealand, the kiwi, although represented in the London Zoo, remains as diffident as New Zealanders in geuea Irabout seekNew Zealanders in general about seeknationality. Il could well take a lesson from the Australian frogmou’h. The following appeared in a iccuit issue of a prominent London newspaper: ‘‘Among zoo night birds n.e the kiwis and frogmouths. These rank among the comparatively few strictly nocturnal b ids, and both are in their different wavs unique. The Australian kiwi, stationed in the ostrich house, is now a rarity, having fallen an easy prey to man and beast in the days prior to its protection. At night .t creeps out of its burrow and probes the earth with its long beak in search of worms. It often beats the ground with its large and heavy feet, thus causing its prey to come to the surface with i view to investigation, 'l’he Australian frogmouth is the zoo’s champion sleeper, its daytime slumbers being so profound that even lifting it, from its perch Vannut, startle it into wakefulness.”