CHAPTER III.
DECLINING BIRTH-RATE.
_Decline of birth-rates rapid and persistent .-- Food cost in New Zealand .-- Relation of birth-rate to prosperity before and after 1877 .-- Neo-Malthusian propaganda .-- Marriage rates and fecundity of marriage .-- Statistics of Hearts of Oak Friendly Society .-- Deliberate desire of parents to limit family increase._ It is not the purpose of this work to follow any further the population problem so far as it relates to deaths and emigration.

Attention will be concentrated on births, and the influences which control their rates.
A rapid and continuous decline in the birth-rate of Northern and Western Europe, in contravention of all known biological and economic laws, has filled demographists with amazement.
A table attached here shows the decline very clearly.

According to Parkes ("Practical Hygiene," p.

516), the usual food of the soldier may be expressed as follows:-- Articles.

Daily quantity in oz.