BIRTH RATE IN FRANCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3267, 12 July 1911, Page 7

BIRTH RATE IN FRANCE.

A SUBSTANTIAL DECREASE

Dr,. Bertillon is very despondent (says the Paris correspondent of ■ the "Daily Telegraph”), over the returns of births and deaths, just. published, The figures were for the former 774,358 and for the latter 703,777. The number of births is. the lowest for- the. -past- century, barring that for 1909, which was 4000 less. In 1859 over a million children were bom in France. This figure remained about stationary till 1868. when the number was over 980,000. ’ The births exceeded 900,000 for 18 years; but- fell to 899,000 in 1886. For the following 20 years they exceeded 800,000 annually. During the past four years the figure of births has begun, with a seyen. The increase in 1910 'ever. 1909 Dr. Bertillon considers insignificant. The . decrease in the deathrate also fails to give him any hope. He points on tthat it is solely due to. the.- dwindling- birth-rate. The reduction is observable .only among children • under ope year. The .. -only, reason, therefore,- why there are. fewer is that fewer phildren are born.. Meanwhile, as Dr. Bertillon remarks despondently, the. excess of births over deaths in the German Empire last year was 884.000, -as compared with under 71,000 in France. The- returns- give -him! only one ray of hope. A law waspassed in 1907 abolishing a'few, of the amazing formalities surrounding marriage in' France. It- is still difficult to get' married in this country , but it- was almost impossible ,to .do so,-.before June,1907.' Nw, for instance, a v mian or a woman over 30 years of age may marry in. France: without troubling, to obtain his. or her parents’ consent.- Before 1907 such consent, verbal or written, was. needful. If-the father and mother and the , two- grandfathers and .grandmothers of eittlier of the parties were dead, that party could net get married unless he or she produced: the certificates of death of all six forebears. These are. still required if the man or woman in the case be under 30. 9 However, the "simplifications” introduced such as they Were, were sufficient to send up the marriage rate wonderfully. Dr. Bertillon notes with, delight that .the number of weddings celebrated in France last year—to wit, 309,289—is one of the highest on record since the law of 1907. The marriage rate lias since then gone up some 5000’ a year. Dr. B.er.tillori has therefore some glimmer of .hop© that the birth-rate niay rise, too, though he is the first to acknowledge, that, though French peopie marry morp. that is no proof that they will increase the population.