125) show that the mean number of children to each marriage at the age of 15-19 years is 6.75, at the age of 20-25 years it is 5.32, a difference of 1.44 in favour of delayed marriage for a period of five years.
In New Zealand the marriage rate has gone up from 5.97 per thousand persons living in 1888 to 7.67 in 1900.
This class includes clerks with an income of L100 and under,--a large number with L150, and all misogynists with higher incomes.
It includes labourers with L75 a year and under, and many who receive L100.
Their motives for avoiding marriage are mostly prudential.
Those who abstain from marriage for prudential reasons are as a rule good citizens.

They are workers who realise their responsibilities in life, and shrink from undertaking duties which they feel they cannot adequately perform.

By far the largest class who practice prevention, consists of those who marry, and have one or two children, and limit their families to that number, for prudential, health, or selfish reasons.
These too are as a rule good citizens, and there are two qualities that so distinguish them.

First, their prudence; they have no wish to burden the State with the care or support of their children.

Their fixed determination is to support and educate them themselves, and they set themselves to the work with thriftiness and forethought.
In order to do this, however, it is essential that the family is limited to one, two, or three, as the case may be, and before it is too late, preventive measures are resorted to.
The second quality that distinguishes them as good citizens is their self-control.