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5
which we are living at the present time. There are
undoubtedly very many persons who suffer acutely from
the strain of the war—whose physical and nervous
system, perhaps never very well balanced or robust, are
now called upon to sustain unprecedented strain of
various kinds.
The problem of the falling birth rate is very serious
and will have to be strenuously tackled after the war.
Four years ago the excess of births over deaths was
more than 350,000 annually. Each year since then the
excess of births over deaths has been growing less and
less. The increasing unwillingness for large families is
due chiefly to the desire of people for greater comfort,
less responsibility, and more freedom to indulge in what
one may call the more frivolous side of life. For the
future welfare of the Race and Empire it is more than
time that this artificial state of things was brought to an
end, and the normal and natural conditions and duties
of married life restored to their old position of honour
and respect.
The most striking features in the sanitary history of
the year are the large number of Rubella and Measles
cases recorded, without any mortality from these
diseases, and the small number of Scarlet Fever cases.
The epidemic of Measles has run far into the present
year, and altogether must have involved, I believe, close
on 1,000 children.
The mortality has only amounted to less than 0.5
per cent., and there has been a marked absence of
serious complications. It seems justifiable to attribute
much of this improvement to the effects of the Measles