Race Suicide.

New Zealand Tablet, 4 November 1909, Page 1729

Race Suicide.

A Christchurch politician proposes to *cure* race suicide by making some adjustment" of taxation .in'favour of-married -couples with large families. So did ,Sir Kenelm Digby —that 'hearty, thorough-paced liar,' as Charles Lamb calls him —undertake to 'cure' cancer with his absurd 'sympathetic powder.' So did Mrs. Stephens with-'Stephen's Specific,' for the secret of which the British Parliament- paid her £5,000 „ cash down in advance-^r-only to .find that the worthless consisted, of eggs, snail-shells (with the snail in them), hips and haws, swine-cress and a few other assorted vegetables —all burned and mixed together. The Christchurch politician's nostrum is about as likely to 'cure' or even -_, appreciably ameliorate " race suicide as those pretentious . 'remedies' were to settle with, or seriously stop the ravages of, cancer. Our reverend friends of ■ other faiths lately gathered in council have made a .better diagnosis, of the -disorder. They know it is a moral- one first and above all, and an economical one last —if at all; for the chief sinners are not the. poor, but the. well-to-do and the rich. And the one effective remedy must be a moral one, too — namely, a return to the old Catholic teaching in regard to the sacred duties and responsibilities of -wedlock. So far, good. But, curiously enough, we have' recently found the 'Actuarial Statistical Register' quoted to this effect: that, whereas the average family among'the married clergy jwas about four children in 1895, it has now-dropped to below two. And it is strange a further comment on ,the recent deliberations on the subject of race suicide is furnished by two recent advertisements in the. secular Press of New Zealand in regard to vacant positions in gTeat ecclesiastical establishments conducted by the' clergy of one_ of the Churches that have lately' been lamenting the shirking of parental responsibility. Both advertisements call for applications from married couples —one of them requires the pair to be 'without encumbrances'; the other notified that a couple without encumbrances would be preferred.' Consistency is called a jewel —probably on account of its rarity.