ve 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