and by pauperising charitable aid and benevolent institutions, then our
self-respecting right-respecting citizen must decide whether he will
forego the luxury and ease that he may enjoy, and rear the normal
family, or curtail his own progeny, and support the army of defectives
thrown upon society by the State-encouraged fertility of the unfit.

It has already been shown, that in this colony the best fit to multiply
are ceasing to do so, because of a desire to attain a social and
financial stability that will protect them and their dependents from
want or the prospect of want. There is every reason to believe, that
when this stability is assured the normal family soon follows.

The love of luxurious idleness and a passion for excitement, which were
typical of the voluntarily barren women of ancient Rome, have little
place with us, as a cause of limited nativity.

Men and women reason out, that they cannot bear all the burdens that the
State imposes upon them, support an increasing army of paupers, and
lunatics and defectives, and non-producers, and that luxuriously, and at
the same time incur the additional burden of rearing a large family.

Let us examine these burdens, and see if the complaint of our best stock
is justified.

The amount raised by taxation in New Zealand (including local rates)
during the year 1902-03, amounted per head of population (excluding
Maories) to £5 4s. 7d. The bread-winners in New Zealand number according
to official returns, 340,230, and the total rates and taxes collected
for the year 1902-03 amounted to £4,174,787 or £12 5s. 4d. for each
bread-winner for the year.