Our Babies

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 24 August 1917, Page 4

Our Babies

(By Hygeia). Published under the auspices of tr.e Society for the Health of Women and Children. "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain n ambulance at'the bottom." Child-Welfare Conference at Capetown. Address by Mr Paul D. Cluver. (Continued). Doty of the Community to the Child. "Our work to-day is in the first place" to educate ourselves as to what we can do towards saving the child from disaster by safeguarding it during infancy, and thus at least giving it a fair start. "Our second duty is to devise moans to educate public opinion as to the value of the child. How urgently necessary this is the following extract from the address given by Dr Imrie at the last Municipal Congress will show: Government Indifference. 'ls it not true that the Governments of our country spend hundreds and thousands of pounds yearly in the medical inspection of sheep, in the eradication, of Scab, and have spent nearly a million pounds in the eradication of Rinderpest and East Coast Fever? Yes. And it is also true they have not spent a penny on improving the health and physique of our future citizens in the Cape Province.'

". . . However, it is not fair to pot all the blame for the neglect of the child on toe Union and Provincial Governments, when our legislators are quice apathetic. Nor should we denounce the legislators when the electors take no interest in the question. Popular Ignorance, Prejudice, and Fatalism Mainly to Blame. The ordinary elector, again, is not altogether to blame; he has not been educated to understand the importance and needs of child-life. He is usually an easy-going fatalist, who holds such exploded views as: 1. That the sooner his children get measles the better. 2. That wrong feeding and want of cleanliness have nothing to do with the decay of teeth, but that this is due to constitutional defects.

Instead of waiting for the Government to take action, we should make ! Bvery effort to change the views of | that section of the public which con- j aiders jackals' tails of far greater value to the State than healthy children;; which believes in curing cur social, cancers by palliatives such as Hospitals, Aaylums, Prisons, Reformatories,, and Poor-relief. It will be necessary to point out how expensive such methods are. and that there would be an enormous gain to the State if effective steps were taken to remove tbo cause of the evil, which in most canes can be traced to the neglect of the child. Everyone of us can do something in this direction in our own special spheres; much can also be done by securing the interest of local educational and municipal authorities. The greatest' asset a town possesses is its energetic and bfealtby-minded residents. It follows, then, that the children are its greatest potential source of wealth. The welfare of the child sfiould therefore "be of the first importance to the Town Council, and to-day we are here, to discnsß 'what Bhould be done for tie child by TownCouncillors, so that they can merit the ■ame of City Fathers.

Mr Benjamin Broadbent (Huddersfinld) on Safeguarding the Child. Following on Mr Cluver's addreßs, came a paper by Mr Broadbent, the devoted pioneer in England of the systematic visiting of homes, with a viewto safeguarding and helping mother and child through the agency of comittess of capabte women working onbroadly humanitarian lines, akin to the Planket work in New Zealand. Mr Broabent is deeply impressed witty the benefits that accrue from getting the whole community helpfully, intelligently, and humanely interested "in the cause of infancy." Commandeering All Classes for the Service of Mother and Child. "Will it be considered that I am asking too much in thus wishing to commandeer practically the whole of the educated classes for service in the cause of the babies? I could say much, in justification of my demand. . . I say this only as a plea: that the who{e future of mankind depends upon the right treatment of the- infant and the

child. . . It is ray convicticra that if we are ever to emerge into a larger and more spacious realm of righteousness, freedom, and enlightment, it will be the little child that will lead the way thereto, and by serving these little ones we shall make possible a future happier for them than the wracked world around as to-day." Appreciation of New Zealand.

"I close with a reference to what has been done by one section of the British Empire in their care for infancy. We that live in the British Isles have been deeply impressed by the manner in which all the Dominions have come to the help 'of the Empire in the awful struggle that haß been forced upon us. We have seen the kind of men tbst are bred and born in these comparatively new settlements, and we admire them ail. I would not give the palm to any, nor would I be understood to undervalue any because I select for illustration one Dominion oat of them all. It merely happens that I know what the New Zealanders are like that have come over to help us, and I know something of the conditions which prevail in New Zealand iD regard to babies. "I do not say that either in the production of men or in the care of infancy that New Zealand surpasseß South Africa or Australia or Canada, but I do know, and confess it with shame, that we in the British Islea come out very badly in comparison with the Dominions as to the statistics of our care of Infant Life.

"I do not know whether or no the results in Soutb Africa are better or worse than in New Zealand. If they are better, I would only say, Look to your'hononr, lest they surpass you. If they are not so good, I would say: See that you emulate, and if possible, surpass the best hitherto. Healthy manhood, healthy womanhood, ate the purest and best wealth of the world, and it is only possible to grow them from healthy babyhood and healthy childhood. May this true wealth grow and increase in South Africa, and may your Conference do something to promote and to forward the more abundant production of tbis true wealth. I should like to add to Mr Broadbent's peroration, as eminently in keeping with the whole spirit of his fervid plea, Emerson's beautiful words: "The child is the perpetual Messiah, sent into the arms of fallen men to win them back to Paradise."