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Page 17
Delayed marriage under Malthusian principles would exert a potent
influence in limiting the births, because early marriages were, and,
under normal circumstances would still be, fruitful.
In the 28th annual report relating to the registration and return of
Births, Marriages and Deaths in Michigan for the year 1894 (p. 125), it
is stated that "The mean number of children borne by females married at
from 15 to 19 years of age inclusive, is 6.76. For the next five year
period of ages, it is 5.32, or a loss of 1.44 children per marriage,
this attending an advance of five years in age at marriage."
Voluntary effort frequently expresses itself in the practice of
abortion. Many monthly nurses degenerate into abortionists and practise
their calling largely, while many women have learned successfully to
operate on themselves.
The extent to which this method of limiting births is practised, and the
absence of public sentiment against it, in fact the wide-spread sympathy
extended to it, may be surmised from the facts that at a recent trial of
a Doctor in Christchurch, New Zealand, for alleged criminal abortion, a
large crowd gathered outside the Court, greeting the accused by a
demonstration in his favour on his being discharged by the jury. A
similar verdict in a similar case in Auckland, New Zealand, was greeted
by applause by the spectators in a crowded Court, which brought down the
indignant censure of the presiding Judge.
In New Zealand there is no oppressive misgovernment, there is no land
question in the sense in which Nitti applies the term, there is no
poverty to account for a declining birth-rate or to confuse the problem.
There is prosperity on every hand, and want is almost unknown. And yet,
fewer and fewer children, in proportion to the population, and in
proportion to the number of marriages, are born into the colony every
year. The only reason that can be given is that the people, though they
want marriage and do marry, do not wish to bear more children than they
can safely, easily, and healthfully support, with a due and
ever-increasing regard for their own personal comfort and happiness.
They have learned that marriage and procreation are not necessarily
inseperable and they practice what they know.
CHAPTER V.
CAUSES OF DECLINING BIRTH-RATE.
_Influence of self-restraint without continence_.--_Desire to limit
families in New Zealand not due to poverty_.--_Offspring cannot be
limited without self-restraint_.--_New Zealand's economic
condition_.--_High standard of general education_.--_Tendency to migrate
within the colony_.--_Diffusion of ideas_.--_Free social migration
between all classes_.--_Desire to migrate upwards_.--_Desire to raise
the standard of ease and comfort_.--_Social status the measure of
financial status_.--_Social attraction of one class to next
below_.--_Each conscious of his limitation_.--_Large families confirm
this limitation_.--_The cost of the family_.--_The cost of maternity.
The craving for ease and luxury_.--_Parents' desire for their children's
social success_.--_Humble homes bear distinguished sons. Large number
with University education in New Zealand_.--_No child labour except in
hop and dairy districts_.--_Hopeless poverty a cause of high
birth-rates_.--_High birth-rates a cause of poverty_.--_Fecundity
depends on capacity of the female to bear children_.
The first or direct cause of this decline in the birth-rate then, is the
inhibition of conception by voluntary means, on the part of those
capable of bearing children.
This inhibition is the result of a desire on the part of both sexes to
limit their families.
Conception is inhibited by means which do not necessitate continence,
but which do necessitate some, and in many cases, a great amount of
self-restraint. But how comes it, that in these days of progress and
prosperity, especially in New Zealand, a desire to limit offspring
should exist amongst its people, and that the desire should be so strong
and so universal?
The desire for this limitation must be strong, for there is absolutely
no evidence that the passion for marriage has lost any of its force; it
must be extensive for the statistics show its results, and the
experience of medical men bears the contention out.
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