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11
The inquiry is to be made in various directions. The extent
and character of the decline are to be considered under such
headings as the present British birth-rate and infantile mortality,
general and classified according to income, occupation, province
and county, urban and rural.
Statistics showing the proportion of sterile to total marriages,
and the extent of the declining birth-rates in foreign countries will
be prepared. The alleged causes are to be investigated, and the
effects of the decline are to be searched. The question will also be
considered in its national and economic aspects.
Although it is known that since 1877 the birth-rate throughout
the country has been steadily declining, it is curious how large
social movements may take origin, and even gain considerable
impetus before the community in general has fairly realised that
they exist.
It has been so in large measure with the causes underlying
the phenomenon of the falling birth-rate. Nevertheless, there is
probably no one who will deny, that one of them, at least, is the
practice of voluntarily limiting the number of births which take
place in married life.
An examination of the figures for Acton for the last seven
years will show that whereas the birth-rate in the North-East,
North-West, and South-East Wards has been falling rapidly, in
the South-West Ward the rate remains fairly constant. The
following table gives the birth-rate per 1,000 inhabitants since
1907, in each of the Wards :—
North-East. North-West. South-East. South-West.
1913 21.7 17.7 23.9 33.
19102 22.1 18.9 23.9 33.
1911 19.7 17.5 24.7 34.2
1910 21.9 19.9 26.3 32.3
1909 23.6 19.1 28.0 31.8
1908 26.9 19.5 31.2 33.1
1907 25.5 20.2 32.0 33.6