AUSTRALIAN MORALITY. 481 



reproaches in regard to the faUing birth rate could not be fairly 

 hurled at him, and he scornfully resented invitations to vicarious 

 morality by inviting the Commissioners to " take the beam out of 

 their own eyes." As far as this goes, I am only repeating what I 

 have heard openly stated. In any case, there is plenty of statistical 

 evidence to prove that the faults, if any, in regard to the limitation 

 of the family, are to be laid to the charge of the wealthier members 

 of the community, who, the man in the street remarks, ought to 

 know better. Dealing with the question of the decline of the 

 birth rate in Western Australia, Dr. Hope, the principal Medical 

 Officer in that State, remarks as follows in his report for the year 

 1909 : — " The lack of appreciation among the better-favoured 

 classes of their moral duty to themselves and the State causes a 

 retrograde movement in the quality of the increase of the population, 

 leaving those less prosperous and less morally, mentally and physi- 

 cally fit to bear the greater burden of procuration." As regards 

 the decline of the birth rate in the United Kingdom, Dr. Tredgold 

 writes as follows in the June, 1910, issue of the " Contemporary 

 Review " : — " This decline is not general, it is selective, and, un- 

 fortunately, the selection is in the wrong direction. There is not the 

 slightest doubt that the decline is chiefly incident in, indeed, one 

 may say, practically confined to, the best and most fit elements of 

 the community." Hosts of other medical men all over the world, 

 including many in Australia, have publicly stated that the " lower " 

 classes are increasing out of all proportion to the wealthier classes 

 in the community. 



It is stated also that the relatively prolific reproduction among 

 the weak-minded and the criminal classes constitutes a serious 

 menace to the wellbeing of the British nation. To what extent are 

 these statements true and disinterested ? Again, we are told that 

 the physique of the British nation is deteriorating. When one 

 visits even the best of the Australian State Schools one wonders 

 that the children look as healthy as they do. At four o'clock in the 

 afternoon of a summer day the air in most schoolrooms is " enough 

 to knock you down," while in winter the combined odours arising 

 from hundreds of damp and dirty boots, coupled with that from 

 more or less wet clothes, must be somewhat stupefying to both 

 teachers and scholars. Some day, perhaps, we wiU learn that it 

 will pay us in the health and happiness of the race to spend a little 

 more money on our school buildings, to have larger classrooms and 

 smaller classes, and to have more teaching in the open air. 



It seems to me that there is a good deal of the " parrot cry "in 

 much of the talk regarding our physical and moral deterioration. 

 The statistics of mortality show that the death rate is steadily im- 

 proving. If we look at the world of sport we find that our repre- 

 sentatives can run faster, row faster, fight better, and shoot straighter 

 than was the case in the " good old days." Some of the finest pro- 

 ductions in the world of art, literature and science distinguish these 

 latter days. Nor are men any less brave in war, nor any less hardy 

 and courageous in exploration. 



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