OUR BABIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3144, 24 July 1917, Page 3

OUR BABIES

[BY HTTGEU.I

I'nbllslicd under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children.

"It is wiser to pill up a fence at the top of ii precipice: than to niiiintain an ambulance al llio bottom."

SAVING TILE BABIES IN ENGLAND. Lloyd George's sdienm for a "Have the Dairies Week" in the Old Country has donu much to enhance interest in the welfare of mother and child—nn interest which had already been quickened throughout the whqlo world by the appalling and continuous eacrilico of life due to the great war.

What the London "Times" fcn.vs. Had our infant mortality teen a.-: low as tlml of New Zealand, ve shnild have saved 100,000 babies during the first, two years of the war-a number nearly equal to our men killed at the front.

Second to the lighting f<mv;. cliiiJ wastage is absolutely the. inost urgent uatlonaL problem in cneh hclligerent country. Whatever the oWotao of the war, the future of each i-.iti.in v ill U ; pend on the quality :ihd viril.'ty cf its citizens in the next two or throe dellowevcr, the championing of the cause of mother and child at Home has not been limited lo "The Times" and the Prime Minister. Lord Rhomlda has also taken the matter up, as a member of the Cabinet. He lias proposed that, a Ministry of Health shall bo established at once, not only to compensate as far as possible for the wastage of war-time, but also as a tardy recognition of the fact that the children of the rare are the "trustees of the future." Jf the ehildjen are not butter born and better reared from now onwards than they have been during our time, our successors will be in an even worse plight than our- ■ selves with 1 regard to "mints and ineffieients," both as regards military service and motherhood. Some data for Lord Ehondila's plea arc set forth in a recent issue of the "Daily Mail" by a physician, who writes as follows under the heading SAVE THE BABIES. The Need for a Health Ministry. "Upwards of 100.000 children under five years of age die each year in England, according to the most recent, estimate of the best-informed medical administrators. For the four years 1911-1914 the exact figure was 575,078-a figure which represents more than a quarter of all the deaths at all ages. "This clearly is an appalling state of .affairs, for by far the greater nart cf tliat loss is avoidable! loss. .Since the war began we have suffered fearful depletion of our numbers on the, battlefield, but behind the battlefield, in the homes, our loss has been equally terrible.

two and a- half years, using the above reckoning, 360,000 children under live years of age. Moreover, the men vho iMed in Prance died gloriously, selling their lives lor England in a supreme cause; but the children who died, died miserably, and there was nothing of glorv or good in that sacrifice. No military failure, however disastrous, ever spent life to less purpose than this toll of splendid lifo has been spent. Like a gambler, reckless 'in misfortune, has England cast away these pledges of her strength and greatness. "It is evident that this burning of the candle at both ends cannot continue. In peaco timo this annual sacrifice to Moloch was dreadful enough: in war time it spells ruin. Our birth-rate falls ana falls, the best and bravest of our race are cut off. and the children who might have perpetuated their splendid qualities arc allowed to die by the hundred thousand. There is only one possible end to this progress. Saving of infant, life is no longer a question of charity, it is no longer a 'inestion of- social reform, it is no longer a, question of economical reorganisation, or tven n. question of man-power. It is to-day a question of national existence, the greatoat of all the questions bearing upon that problem. "ft is for this reason that, every man ami woman in England to-day is personally concerned in the proposal which Lrrd Ilhondda has made that a Ministry of Health should forthwith lie instituted. Thai, is no new proposal, for the 'Daily Mail' made the- suggestion year?, ago, .13 the present writer remembers very well. At that timo, however, the idea that saving infant life concerned the Ooveriiment of the country was not accepted. Now the suggestion appears in a very different Heist, nnd Lord Ithondda's p*rop:>Ml is being discussed on every hand with the greatest eagerness. Life's" Critical Bays. "Just recently it was found at n. grent military hospital that a high proportion oi young men who broko down in health as the result of training or service had been unabk- to pluy games at school. J'ncjy had been unlit in most.cases e\'er sinco they could remember. That army of iiiihts stands in the same relation to tho babies who die as do the wouuded on the haltiehcld to the killed. "Thai army too, must be won for Eng. land in the days between the cradle and the schfclroom—which are by far the must- critical days, in tluj health senfe, in a human life. Lord Rbondda's scheme, if it succeeds, may mean the annual securing to the country of as many as 300,000 fit men and women who would have hefn lost or crippled. That is its full and comlil'itc justification, and that is the reason why it deserves the help and support of bm\v iH'criotic m<lll and woman in the country." HUTT BOWLINGAND TENNIS CLUB 0 . The annual report of the Hutt Bowling and Tennis Club stales: The year commenced with a credit balance of £<■?} 11s.. 10d., and ended with a credit balance of .£llß 10s. 9d., which gives a net protit on the year's operations of J. 25 183. lid. This result is, in the opinion of the committee, very satisfactory, especially when the items "legal expenses •Cl 6 Cs. 6(1.," and "purchasing of lawn mower 155.," which ' are not Annual charges, are taken into consideration. During the season twenty-two members have resigned, and forty-one new members were elected. The membership now stands at 185. The green throughout the year was in excellent order. That it was used during I Hie Dominion tournament speaks volumes ] i'or ..its condition. This season the presence of a fungus growth on the green has entailed extra expense in labour and grass seed. The Green Committee hopes to overcome this difficulty mi'l to provide a good turf for next season. The club engaged in 11 poiinniif .lames, winning C and losing 5, scoring 1224 points for and having 1320 points scored against it. It is considered Hint the present pennant scheme of play is too unwieldly in operation, nnd probably by next season a more workable ' scheme will be devised.