OUR BABIES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 97, 26 July 1916, Page 7

OUR BABIES.

«o‘i <»jutliil i L /J.A.'fj&HluW. . -i‘ -.«>*? V-i ** *'*‘o Hi i»u <llllOlll / a r> JStr. J_*. , . ■ ’■( . M x j (By Hygeia.) Published under the auspices of the itojid’ New' Zealand’ Society foi the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a, precipice than to maintain an ambulance ;at the bottom.” ,f 1.1 a" \ < , PREVENTION BETTER THAN *' : cure, The main plank of the Society’s, platform has always been that proper attention to the simple measures ,necessary for the building up and maintenance of health and fitness, especially the health and fitness of women and children, is a matter of far more practical importance and ultimate beneficence than the fighting of disease. The fact is that there would bo very little disease or debility in the rising generation if people gave a moderate fraction of the thought and attention to health and prevention of disease that they bestow on providing the means for treating sickness and suffer-

As \vc have insisted over and over again, the debility and sickness of babies is due to mere ignorance and carelessness, rarely to intentional neglect nr cruelty. One cannot quote too often the following paragraph, which appeared some years ago in a manifesto, issued by the Society in association with the Public Health Department : ■ WHY CONVERT ASSETS INTO LIABILITIES ? Hospitals (public and private) are costing us directly about £500,000 (half a million sterling) a year, to say nothing of the enormous loss entailed by chronic debility and the withdrawal of nurses and invalids from spheres of pvork which would give a return to the country. We want to prevent our norma! assets from continuing to be converted ihrough ignorance and neglect into grave liabilities.

We arc all of us proud of our costly hospitals; liui should wo not rather have sofn<> souse of shame regarding these constantly-increasing evidences, of our .failure to take €<> heart die arresting American adage .which has appeared for nearly 10 years at the head of our weekly column: —“It is wiser to put up a fence at the top oi a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.” We have just received an interesting Red Coss pamphlet hearing on “I’re-

vention v. Cure” from the Hon. Dr. I. W. Barrett, the well-known humanitarian enthusiast, who lectured on Town-planning, etc., at the recent Intercolonial Medical Congress at Auckland, and subsequently throughout New Zealand. The following clever poem by Joseph Malines, with which Dr. Barrett concludes his pamphlet, may be trusted to further the cause of common sense and prevention where, perhaps, serI ions prose alone might fail: — FENCE OR AMBULANCE. ’T was a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed, Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant; But over its terrible edge there had slipped A duke, and full many a peasant. So the people said something would have to he done. But their projects did not at all tally: Some said, “But a fence ’round the edge of the cliff” ; Some, “an ambulance down in the valFy.” But (he cry for the ambulance carried the dliy, For it sptead through the neighboring city. A fence may he useful or not, it is true, But each heart became brimful of pity For those who had slipped o’er that dangerous cliff; And the dwellers in highway and alley Gave pounds or gave pence, not to , put up a fence, But an ambulance down iir'tTic ’val-' , ! ..at .munu* lev. ■sc vov ! Then an old sago remarked, “It’s a , marvel to me That people give far more attention, To repairing results than to stopping the cause, When they’d much better aim at prevention. Let us stop at its source all this mischief,” cried he, “Come, neighbours and friends, let us rally! If the cliff we will fence we might almost dispense lyitlj the ambulance down in the valley.”

“Oh, lie’s a fanatic,”' the others rejoined, Dispense with the ambulance P Never ! He’d dispense with all charities, too, if ho could ! , icf; Mi gc No, no! We’ll support them ‘ forever !

Aren’t we picking folks up just as fast as they fall ? And shall this man dictate to us P Shall he ? Why should people of sense stop to put up a fence While their ambulance works in the valley ? But a sensible few, who are practical too, Will not bear with such nonsense much longer; They believe that prevention is better than cure, And their party will soon be the stronger. Encourage them, then, with your purse, voice, and pen, And (while other philanthropists dally) They will scorn all pretence, and put a stout fence On flic? cliff that hangs over the valley.

Better guide well the young than reclaim them when old, For the voice of true wisdom is calling: “To rescue the fallen is good, but ’tis best 'To prevent other people from falling. Better close np the course of temptation and crime Than deliver from dungeon or galicy ; Bet'ci- pfit a strong fence ’round the top of the cliff, Than an ambulance down in the valley.” As bearing on the last few lines of the poem, we cannot do hotter than quote the conclusion of the manifesto previously referred Lo; — WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE. “Every country has just as many unfortunates, invalids, and criminals as it deserves—no more ! ‘lll-health means nnemployableness; unemployahleness means morbid thought and feeling; and morbid thought and feeling mean loafing, vice, and crime.’ ” Our Best Immigrants are the Babies.