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King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 610, 11 October 1913, Page 6

n a Id, Hector Sm i t Hasting;.".- —-PlunkeS Nui'sa Purcell. Office of the Society a»; Pvlr Bate's Pharmacy. Hon. Sec , Mr a T. W. Lewis, Tel. 285. Dannevirke. —• P'unket Nurae Wright. Hon. Sec., Mrs Bickford; Bank of New Zealand.

NOTE. In order to make room for two articles dealing witb the Conference on Infantile Mortality the publication of the articles on Glaxo (the first of which appeared last week) is deferred. THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CONFERENCE ON INFANTILE MORTALITY.

At the beginning of August a conference of English-speaking people on Infantile Mortality was held in the Caxton Hall, Westminster, London. The Conference was largely attended by the leading physicians whose specialty is the care of children, including taariy Americans as well as representatives from all parts of the United Kingdom and ths Continent and Australasia, Besides medical officers of health, nurses, and paid health visitors, many voluntary workers Were present, and some of them read papers on the work done by the various local communities which thsy represented. The main differences between th 9 work ot our Society and that done in other par's of the English-speaking World in—--1 in New Zealand we have consistent teaching throughout the whole Dominion.

2. —That our teaching is for all classes of the community.

In England each province sends out its own book of advice, and nofcli'ng has been dene to co-ordinate what has been arrived at by the greatest authorities aa being the best for mother and child. Further, in England the work done is almost entirely for the sjbrnerged off poorer classes.

The idea of the women of a country banding themselves together to find out what is best for tha health of themselves and their children, while appealing to members of the. congress as a fine ambition, seemed to them altogether outside the bounds of what is practicable. They said that women at Home were different from ours—that one cannot get them to take serious and continuous interest j:i such matters. Of course, we know that women all the world over are much the same, and that once they understand the real magnitude of the pro blem they would be es keen and earnest as in New Zealand. The simple fact is that no consistent teaching in this connection is available here. It is a great pity that the conference did not ask the various mambers beat qualified to deal with the subject to draw up an authoritative pamphlet as a guide for all those interested in the health of children throughout the land. However, the time was not ripe for Buch a measure. Very great interest was manifested in our work and propaganda, and on all hands there was a keen desire to have copies of everything that the Society had published. A few of the more conservative members of the medical profession thought that in England only a few exceptional women could be induced to take a rational interest in the health of themselves and their children on the advanced lines advocated by the Society; but all were agreed that the kind of information New Zealand is conveying to its mothers would be highly beneficial to the race if parents could only be led to take the matter as seriously as it deserves. Further, among those who had arleady had copied of the Society' 3 books and pamphlets not a single question was raited as to the correctness and desirability of pur work and advice; and in general the members spoke with very frank appreciation of what is being done by the Society.

Ai3 for our results, while not doubting the benefits which have accrued from the enthusiastic and earnest way in which the women of New Zealand have tackled the problem, the tendency in almost every caae was to fall back more or less on our glorious cilmate, and our living in fortunate little islands, which were the happy, sunlit gardens oi ihe world, as the fundamental reason why the English infantile death-rate stands to-day so much above that of Ksb Zealanci. One puzzled msmbt-v of the congress got involved in !i curious speculation, in which he tried to account for the relatively iov? death rate among babies in tno jJomifiiun on in 3 assumption that we had naen wise 3n not encouraging over-populatba and then inconsistently wandered <:■ :■ i to say thai, whereas " : n ocher coi::i tries a risa in the birtn rats nca always been attended with a highs? infantile death rate, in Nev; Zealand the reverse had been the case—in o'her words, that notwithstanding an increase in the birth rate of late years, there had actually been a very marked fall in our baby death rate. JOHN BURNS' ADDRESS. John Burns' inauguva) address at the Caston Hall was a lengthy and

r,iu':; ; . BMlEy'v;*: (i ihc.i; ahorsditch HpM .. 2 dr-atb was 14$, HHPFu: t'j.> district of iJatliersea, H|whif!i '.:b li-e work hag been HRipely icknuricd, the death rofco BStlvr past year was only 8 per En*. He inferred not unreasonably that the favourable position of Battersea oa regards the public health laws largely attributable to tha forethought and sound common sense of those who with himself, had been doing their beßt for over a quarter of a century to improve tha social and sanitaiv condition of the district and the health of its people. FACTORY MOTHERS. Dealing with broad general principles, he was eloquent as and scathing in his denunciation of the disastrous results which had accompanied the drafting of women out of their homes into factories without any provision whatever for safeguarding mother and child. This, he showed, accounted for the deplorable state of motherhood in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and other industrial centres, and led to his suggestion that the next congress on infant mortality should be held in ona of those cities.