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