Articles. Daily quantity in oz. av. Meat 12.0 Bread 24.0 Potatoes 16.0 Other vegetables 8.0 Milk 3.25 Sugar 1.33 Salt 0.25 Coffee 0.33 Tea 0.16 Total 65.32 Butter 2.4--(Moleschott.) [Illustration] The New Zealand Official Year Book gives the following as the average prices of food for the years mentioned:-- 1877 1887 1897 1901 s d. s d. s d. s d. Bread per lb. 0 2¼ 0 1¾ 0 1½ 0 1½ Beef per lb. 0 5¼ 0 3½ 0 3 0 5 Mutton per lb. 0 4 0 2¾ 0 2 0 4½ Sugar per lb. 0 5¾ 0 3 0 2½ 0 2¾ Tea per lb. 3 0 2 3 2 0 1 10 Butter (fresh) per lb. 1 3 1 0 0 8 0 11 Cheese (col'n'l) per lb. 0 10 0 5¾ 0 6 0 6 Milk per qt. 0 4½ 0 3 0 3 0 3½ The official returns give the average daily wage for artisans for the years 1877, 1887, 1897, and 1901 as 11s., 10s. 6d., 9s. 9d., and 10s. 3d., respectively. The weekly rations (the standard food supply for soldiers--Parkes's) purchaseable by the weekly wages for these years respectively are 11.1, 14.3, 16, and 12.4; _i.e._, the average weekly wage of an artisan in constant employment in 1877 would purchase rations for 11.1 persons, in 1887 for 14.3 persons, in 1897 for 16 persons, and in 1901 for 12.4 persons. Up to the year 1877, the birth-rate in England and Wales conformed to the law of Malthus, and kept pace with increasing prosperity; but, after that year, and right up to the present time, the nation's prosperity has gone on advancing at a phenomenal rate _pari passu_ with an equally phenomenal decline in the number of births per 1000 of the population. Now, it is a remarkable coincidence that in this very year, 1877, the Neo-Malthusians began to make their influence felt, and spread amongst all classes of the people a knowledge of preventive checks to conception. People were encouraged to believe that large families were an evil. A great many, no doubt, had already come to this conclusion; for there is no more common belief amongst the working classes, at least, than that large families are a cause of poverty and hardship. And this is even more true than it was in the days of the Neo-Malthusians, for then child and women labour was a source of gain to the family, and a poor man's earnings were often considerably augmented thereby. The uniform decrease of the birth-rate is a matter of statistics, and admits of no dispute. It has been least rapid in the German Empire, and most rapid in New Zealand.