EUGENICS, EDUCATION SOCIETY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1248, 3 October 1911, Page 5

EUGENICS , EDUCATION SOCIETY.

;—« The Wellington Eugenics Education Society held a meeting in tho Museum last ■ evening. Papers wero read by Mr. F. G. A. Stuckey, who took for his subject "The Fundamental Principle of Mendelism," and Dr. Platts-Mills, who lectured on "Environment and the Mother." Both speakers received a very attentive hearing and at the conclusion of each ; addicos in-' teresting discussions ensued. Dr. Platts-Mills, in dealing with hi-i subject stated that nations have risen to heights of civilisation and &ome have descended into the valleys of degeneration and humiliation. They have been ruined by decay from within and not by forces acting train without. Tho speaker said that our own nation was threatened by a similar decay. All was not well with our social conditions. AVomen had suffered froin her limited environment and -mi pressions. Her work was supposed to be vithin the four walls of the house. Tho production and distribution of wealth, the arts and sciences, all trades and religion —these aro tho rights of all citizens, and B'lOuld be common to masculines an:l foirinincs alike. The speaker said that Iran had done everything possible for woman. Yet he never understood hor. Sho was content to suggest a few remedies to bring about a healthier . morel tone, and a stronger general physique. Who would endow all mothers, but not all equally. Preference should be given to those bearing healthy children and rearing them naturally. Tho money should bo given to tho mother herself, and not necessarily to tho father. If in . employment, tho woman should receive a definite proportion of her wages for a sufficient length of time before and after the birth of tho child. Where married women wero employed every factory should have a creche, with a trained babies' nurse in charge. All infants from three years and upwards should attend kindergartens, under export teachers and nurses. In the public schools they should receive tho same general education until • they had reached tho age of 12 or 13. Then the girls should enter schools for domestic training, including the care and feeding of infants, and at the ago of 17 girls should be allowed , to follow any course they pleased in the college or university, and so on through life.