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29
of a large pair of tongs which are gripped on to the neck of the animal
immediately behind the ears. The action of gripping switches on
an electric current which renders the pig unconscious for about
two minutes. It is then ' stuck" and bled to death before recovering
consciousness. This method is so quick, easy and effective that
it causes no squealing. It requires no great skill to manipulate
the appliance and it entails no danger to the operator.
From the large number of pigs I have seen dealt with in this
manner, I am satisfied that it is the most humane method of slaughtering
yet devised.
It has not been necessary to institute Police Court proceedings
for any offence against persons dealing in food.
BIRTHS.
Table 7 gives particulars of the births registered and notified
in the district, and the births belonging to the district which have
occurred and been registered outside the district.
It has been explained in previous reports how these figures
are obtained. The total number of registered births is obtained
from the Registrar General, and the notified births are obtained
through the notification of births in the district, or from the Medical
Officers of Health of districts in which the outside births have occurred.
The total number of births registered was 886—being 469
males and 417 females, - and the figure is equal to a birth-rate of
12.6 per 1,000 inhabitants. In addition 33 still births were returned
as belonging to the district. This is not only the lowest
birth-rate for the district, but it is also the lowest number of births
which has been registered in the district for nearly 40 years. Not
since 1895 has there been actually less births registered than the
number registered last year. The population of the district, of
course, was much less in the closing years of last century and to
reach this figure the birth-rate has steadily declined for nearly
half-a-century.
This phenomenon is not peculiar to Acton, and the factors
which have brought this result are operative throughout all the
cultured races of the world. When the figures for the kingdom
will be published there will probably be again an outcry about race
suicide and other prophecies about dire results of birth control.
Whatever views may be held about birth control, the practice has