HUMAN CAPITAL

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1927, Page 4

HUMAN CAPITAL

MOTHERHOOD AND CHILDHOOD

SYDNEY, Sept. 29. Dr A. Watson alunro, one of the founders of the biggest women’s hospital in Sydney, in his Tireless drive for obstetric reform, has been quoting figures which give effective '.point to his agitation. iii jus argument that the principal asset of Ausirnlia is its human capital,, ns. expressed ,in the productive power of its people, he fortifies himself with the statement of the Commonwealth Statistician that the human capital of the Commonwealth to-day, even oji a conservative basis, can he set down at not less than LIO.OOO.CKLOCO, which, incidentally. is about three times as great as the combined public and private wealth of Australia. What surprises Dr Watson Munro is that when politicians get on the stump and talk about the wonderful resources of Australia they never mention the human capital, as expressed in its motherhood and childhood, and the need for conserving that precious life by giving the women every possible chance during the travail of childbirth. In the last generation, that is 33 1-3 years, the maternal mortality in Australia, according to Dr Watson Munro, has been 20,607. In the same period, 310,000 infants under one year have died, representing, in terms of human capital, if they had been reared to 24 years of age, a. total of £620,000,000. Among other obstetric reforms, L)r Watson Munro is lighting strongly for the extension to at least three months of the training period oi young doctors in resilience in maternity I pitals. Australia, he says, is losing every year in confinement no fewer than 700 mothers in the full bloom of robust health. He regards it as a . national tragedy.