MIDDLE CLASS DYING.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15978, 21 November 1919, Page 5

MIDDLE CLASS DYING.

CHILDLESS .MARRIAGES. NEW NATIONAL PROBLEM, (Times.) LONDON, November 14. A striking medical article in the 'Cimes, entitled “The Death of the Middle Classes,” points out that the exorbitant taxation, high prices of food, and difficulties of housing are bringing about a new pressing national problem and putting a premium on bachelorhood, with the inevitable consequences of increased venereal disease and prostitution. The present marriage rate is 13.8, per thousand, the lowest ever recorded. The birth-rate likewise continues rapidly to decline from the same causes, and is now 15.9 for the whole kingdom, compared with 27.2 for the period 1900-1910.

Statistics for classes are unavailable, but overwhelming medical testimony favours the theory that the decline is most marked amongst the middle classes, where many young couples are marrying, an<F openly seeking preventive advice, on the grounds that children under present conditions are ’ not a comfort, but a privation and a drudgery.