View report page

1911]
30
very little fault can be found with the birth-rate since 1801, for as of old the
Israelites could not make bricks without straw, so in these modern, and in
so many aspects wonderful, days, children cannot be begotten without
mothers; for it must not be forgotten that the number of women living at the
child-bearing age has fallen from 84,148 in 1891 to 72 124 in 1911, which is a
decrease of 12,024, or 14.3 per cent.
The lesson to be derived from the facts just stated, is that it is a fallacy to
calculate birth-rates on the gross population of the community, instead of on
the number of women who, living at the child-bearing ages, are alone capablc
of producing children.
Nor must it be forgotten when considering the statistics relating to births
that women are not now married so early in life as formerly, and that marriages
before twenty-one are not nearly so numerous as they were twenty years ago;
therefore, the fall in the birth-rate is undoubtedly partly due to the more
limited time in which married women can bear their offspring. How much
these later marriages of women have effected the birth-rate it is impossible to
state with accuracy, for the particulars as to the age of persons marrying are
no longer tabulated in the reports of the Registrar-General, which is to be
regretted.
The Medical Officer of Health in his annual report for 1904 discussed this
question at length, when the conclusions he arrived at differed from those to
which he has now given expression. The data were then altogether different,
and, therefore, the inferences to be deduced from them were also different. A
reference to that report might be made by members of the Council who are
interested in this question, and in the general decline of the national birth-rate,
which is of such great importance to the nation.
Sex.—Of the 8,113 infants born 4,050 were males and 3,923 females, while
the sex of 140 was not reported by the Registrar-General.
Illegitimate Births.—There were 248 illegitimate births registered, or 8
more than in the preceding year, and 7 more than the average of the ten
preceding years. They represented 3 06 per cent. of the total births. Notwithstanding
that there was a slightly increased number of these births in 1911,
it is nevertheless a fact that there has been a decrease in such births since the
decennial period 1881-90, although in proportion to the registered births they
have slightly increased.