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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIII, 28 March 1896, Page 355

Some years ago an American journal printed a most interesting article which called attention to the fact that babies were not being born in that part of New York where wealth abounds. It showed graphically that the rich people were shunning the duties of fatherhood and motherhood, and that the decrease of birthrate, which has been said to be the first sign of a nation’s decadence, might be laid at the very doors of the people who are most able to provide for children. A statistician has been examining the vital statistics of London for 1892, and he says that they reveal a condition in the English metropolis even more startling than that discovered in New York. In twelve years the number of births to the 1,000 of population has decreased 44. Nothing more striking than this, he remarks, has been learned in many years in support of the theory that as the world grows older it also grows more selfish. A glance at the map accompanying the report shows that the situation in London is like that in New York in the fact that the decrease can be traced to the more prosperous of the city’s population. Do not these statistics mean, he asks, that women and men are becoming more selfish and are less willing than they once were to assume the pains and responsibilities of motherhood and the cares and worries of fatherhood ? This theory alone seems to find ample support in fact. The decrease in births may be traced directly to those who are prosperous These people have tasted the sweets of the superlative luxury which have come with the end of the century, and which are growing with every year. Ease may become a matter of habit, just as whisky may. Ease is disturbed by the arrival of a child and its subsequent demands upon time and labour, and it is more violently disturbed by the added expense of providing for three instead of two, unless there happens to be a proportionate increase of income. It is not an extravagant statement that the cause of the shutting out of these little ones is selfishness pure and simple, and it is chiefly apparent among the very rich.