Family benefit cartoon

In 1926 Parliament passed the Family Allowances Act, which provided for the payment of a means-tested benefit to families with more than two children aged under 15 whose breadwinners earned less than £4 (equivalent to about $360) a week. As the image of the stork in this cartoon from the NZ Observer (25 August 1926) suggests, the initiative was partly motivated by concern about the birth rate, which had been falling for decades.