CHAPTER VIII.
THE MULTIPLICATION OF THE FIT IN RELATION TO THE STATE.
_The State's ideal in relation to the fertility of its subjects_ .-- _Keen competition means great effort and great waste of life_ .-- _If in the minds of the citizens space and food are ample multiplication works automatically_ .-- _To New Zealanders food now includes the luxuries as well as the necessities of life_ .-- _Men are driven to the alternative of supporting a family of their own or a degenerate family of defectives_ .-- _The State enforces the one but cannot enforce the other_ .-- _New Zealand taxation_ .-- _The burden of the bread-winner_ .-- _As the State lightens this burden it encourages fertility_ .-- _The survival of the unfit makes the burden of the fit_.
The multiplication of the fit is of the first importance to the State.
It supplies competent producers and courageous defenders, and the more of these, consistent with space and food (using these terms in their fullest significance), the better off the State.
If healthy happy citizens are the State's ideal, then limitation of population well within the space and food will be encouraged.

If national wealth and prosperity in its material aspect are the State's ideal, the harder the population presses on the means of subsistence the sooner will that ideal be realised.

For it cannot be denied, that the greater the stress and hardship in life, the more strenuous the effort put forth to obtain a foothold.

The greater the competition the keener the effort, and the higher the accomplishment; while to ensure an adequate supply of labour in time of great demand there must always be a surplus.
The waste of life must always be greater; but what of that! National wealth is the ideal--the maximum amount of production.

Child labour, and women labour, are called in to fill the national granaries, though misery and death attend the process.
If this be the ideal of the State, life is of less value than the product of labour, for it can be more easily and readily replaced.
But the ideal of the perfect state is not wealth but the robust happiness of its members.
The happiness of its members is best promoted by the maximum increase in its numbers, consistent with ample space and food.