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9
level of the Death Rate. The falling Birth Rate is surely
the answer to the advocates of birth control. It is certainly
a factor which must give rise to serious thought to those
who have the Nation's health at heart. The effect of the
continued fall is to raise the average age of the population,
and this tends to increase the Death Rate; in effect, too, as
the average age of the female population tends to increase
there is ultimately a reduction in the proportion of women
of reproductive age.
There is also a fall in the Marriage Rate per 1,000
females under 45 years of age. In 1911 census this rate was
212 per 1,000 females of this age; in 1921 census this rate
had fallen to 204—in other words there are to-day fewer
married females of child-bearing age—there is probably also
a lessened fecundity of the population.
There is another factor in the causation of low Birth
Rate which, to say the least of it, is distressing—landlords
who refuse to sub-let to families with young babies, tends
to encourage the use of abortifacients by the already distressed
mother.
In the prevention of this fall in the Birth Rate the
powers of the Health Authority are indeed limited. We can
encourage early marriages and strive to protect the health
and life of every baby born; babies still die of preventable
causes—there are stillbirths because of lack of ante-natal
treatment—but matters are vastly better than they were
twenty years ago, and we can but continue to believe that
the next twenty years will bring as great, if not greater,
return for our efforts.
DEATHS.—There were 417 deaths of Bromley citizens
during the year; 185 of these were males. 32 per cent. of
all deaths are over 75 years of age, 65 per cent. over 55
years of age, and 7 per cent. under 1 year of age.