CHAPTER V.
CAUSES OF DECLINING BIRTH-RATE.
_Influence of self-restraint without continence_ .-- _Desire to limit families in New Zealand not due to poverty_ .-- _Offspring cannot be limited without self-restraint_ .-- _New Zealand's economic condition_ .-- _High standard of general education_ .-- _Tendency to migrate within the colony_ .-- _Diffusion of ideas_ .-- _Free social migration between all classes_ .-- _Desire to migrate upwards_ .-- _Desire to raise the standard of ease and comfort_ .-- _Social status the measure of financial status_ .-- _Social attraction of one class to next below_ .-- _Each conscious of his limitation_ .-- _Large families confirm this limitation_ .-- _The cost of the family_ .-- _The cost of maternity.
The craving for ease and luxury_ .-- _Parents' desire for their children's social success_ .-- _Humble homes bear distinguished sons.

Large number with University education in New Zealand_ .-- _No child labour except in hop and dairy districts_ .-- _Hopeless poverty a cause of high birth-rates_ .-- _High birth-rates a cause of poverty_ .-- _Fecundity depends on capacity of the female to bear children_.
The first or direct cause of this decline in the birth-rate then, is the inhibition of conception by voluntary means, on the part of those capable of bearing children.
This inhibition is the result of a desire on the part of both sexes to limit their families.
Conception is inhibited by means which do not necessitate continence, but which do necessitate some, and in many cases, a great amount of self-restraint.

But how comes it, that in these days of progress and prosperity, especially in New Zealand, a desire to limit offspring should exist amongst its people, and that the desire should be so strong and so universal?
The desire for this limitation must be strong, for there is absolutely no evidence that the passion for marriage has lost any of its force; it must be extensive for the statistics show its results, and the experience of medical men bears the contention out.
While the marriage passion remains normal, offspring cannot be limited without the exercise of self-restraint on the part of both parties to the marriage compact.

Artificial means of inhibiting conception, and intermittent restraint are antagonistic to the sexual instinct, and the desire for limitation must be strong and mutual to counteract this instinct within the marriage bond.
The reasons for this strong and very general desire, that marriage should not result in numerous births must have some foundation.

What is it?
It cannot be poverty.