The Fertility of the Unfit | Page 2

of view of scientific

originality.
I have no doubt that if the work were published in New Zealand it
would be read and bought by a large number of people. I may add that I
discussed your views with competent critics, and they share the opinion
which I have expressed in this letter. I sincerely hope that the volume
will be published, and need not add that my friends and myself will be
subscribers for copies.
Yours sincerely,
J.G. FINDLAY.
* * * * *
FROM MALCOLM ROSS, ESQ.
DEAR DR. CHAPPLE,--
I am pleased to hear that your MS. is to be published. The subject is
one that must attract an increasing amount of attention on the part of all
who have the true interests of the state at heart. There can be no doubt
that the Parliamentary machine has failed, lamentably, to grapple with
the problems you have referred to. At the present time, when some of
our most earnest statesmen and greatest thinkers are discussing the
supposed commercial decadence of the nation, the publication of such a
treatise as you have prepared is opportune, and a perusal of it prompts
the thought that the main remedy lies deeper, and may be found in
sociological even more than in economic reform.
I do not profess myself competent to express any opinion regarding the
remedy you propose. That is a matter for a carefully selected expert
Royal Commission. The whole question, however, is one that might
with advantage be discussed, both in the Press and the Parliament, at
the present time, and I feel sure your book will be welcomed as a
valuable contribution on the subject.
Yours sincerely,

MALCOLM ROSS.
* * * * *
FROM SIR ROBERT STOUT, K.C.M.G., CHIEF JUSTICE.
MY DEAR DR. CHAPPLE,--
I have read your MSS., and am much pleased with it. It puts the
problem of our times very plainly, and I think should be published in
England. I have a friend in England who would, I think, be glad to help,
and he is engaged by one of the large publishing firms in England. If
you decide on sending it to England I shall be glad to write to him, and
ask his assistance. The subject is one that certainly required ventilation,
and whether your remedy is the proper one or not, it ought certainly to
be discussed.
Yours truly,
ROBERT STOUT.

CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I.
--THE PROBLEM STATED p. 1
The spread of moral restraint as a check.--Predicted by Malthus.--The
declining Birth-rate.--Its Universality.--Most conspicuous in New
Zealand. Great increase in production of food.--With rising food rate
falling birth-rate.--Malthus's checks.--His use of the term "moral
restraint."--The growing desire to evade family obligations.--Spread of
physiological knowledge.--All limitation involves

self-restraint.--Motives for limitation.--Those who do and those who do
not limit.--Poverty and the Birth-rate.--Defectives prolific and
propagate their kind.--Moral restraint held to include all sexual
interference designed to limit families.--Power of self-control an
attribute of the best citizens.--Its absence an attribute of the
worst.--Humanitarianism increases the number and protects the lives of
defectives.--The ratio of the unfit to the fit.--Its dangers to the
State.--Antiquity of the problem.--The teaching of the
ancients.--Surgical methods already advocated.

CHAPTER II.
--THE POPULATION QUESTION p. 10
The teaching of Aristotle and Plato.--The teaching of Malthus.--His
assailants.--Their illogical position.--Bonar on Malthus and his
work.--The increase of food supplies held by Nitti to refute
Malthus.--The increase of food and the decrease of births.--Mr.
Spencer's biological theory--Maximum birth-rate determined by female
capacity to bear children.--The pessimism of Spencer's law.--Wider
definition of moral restraint.--Where Malthus failed to anticipate the
future.--Economic law operative only through biological law.

CHAPTER III.
--DECLINING BIRTH-RATE p. 26
Declining 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.

CHAPTER IV.
--MEANS ADOPTED p. 32
Family responsibility--Natural fertility undiminished.--Voluntary
prevention and physiological knowledge.--New Zealand
experience.--Diminishing influence of delayed marriage.--Practice of
abortion.--Popular sympathy in criminal cases.--Absence of
complicating issues in New Zealand.--Colonial desire for comfort and
happiness.

CHAPTER V.
--CAUSES OF DECLINING BIRTH-RATE p. 36
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