OUR BABIES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 270, 18 August 1915, Page 3

OUR BABIES.

(BY HYGLTA.)

Births Act lias put into our bauds the

(Published by request of-the Taihape Plunket Society.) BRITISH BABIES. Some months ago, in this column, attention was drawn to the greatly increased interest in baby welfare manifested throughout EugAmd as a result o fthe great war. We have just received a letter bearing on the subject from Mr. Benjamin Broadbent, who did so much for the babies of Huddersfield when he was Mayor of that city many years ago, and who lias been closely identified ever since with all movements at Home for the benefit of mother and child.

The following extract from the letter will be of interest to our readers, as also a letter written by Mr. Broadbent to the London Times, which wc transcribe in full.

EXTRACT FROM MR. BROAD BENT'S LETTER.

I am thankful- to say that there is at present a reawakening both of tit*; the public and the Government in regard to infant welfare. There is a | prospect of rather important legislative action, and the newspapers, even in this cruel time, arc taking up the subject. The Times lias had several letters and one very good leader, and to-day it has put in a letter of my own. I am sending you a copy. I have-just received the Plunket Magazine, and find it exceedingly interesting. THE NEXT GENERATION. -Mr. Broadbent »s Letter to TheLoaden Times. Sir, —It is satisfactory to note that, even amid the present stress, there is renewed attention being' paid to the value of infant 'life. The question of Lord Robert Cecil on May IS. with Mr. Samuel's reply, showed that the movement in favour of the welfare of infancy is still alive. The reply of Mr. Long to the deputation from the Women's Co-operative Guild on the 7th of this month indicates clearly that the President of the Local Government Board maintains the interest shewn by his immediate predecessor and the cue he succeeded. Your own article of June 9 on "The Next Generation" will further extend and emphasise the importance of questions relating to in- j fant life and health.

As one of those who have laboured long and for the most part silently in this cause, I would say that we welcome all these manifestations with great hope. It would seem that the time is at last, ripe for further legislative advance, and the lines laid down in your article commend themselves—if I may say so —to my own individual judgment as in accordance with the objects we have worked to forward. The one condition for the introduction of a Bill! is that it shall be regarded as an uuopposed measure; if that can be secured the President of the Local Government Board will himself introduce

the Bill. I take ?t that this condition hardly means that there is to be no criticism or that all suggestions are to be ruled out. Ho far as I can see, the proposed Bill is to he brought forward as a Bill amending the Notification of Births Act of 1907. This Act was itself a non-party Bill, and was supported by all sections of the House of Commons. The amending Bill should follow the precedent alrc - set. What Might llr.ro Been.

At such a time as this it seems al : i most inconceivable that there should | be opposition to a measure whose sole 'purpose is to strengthen and extend the usefulness of work which lias been the means of saving at least 1.000 lives I per week during severed years past. It lis no exaggeration to say that if this could be put into full operation throughout Great Britain and Ireland the saving of life would be increased by a further 500 lives per week. These lives, so capable of being saved, would do something towards filling up the terrible gaps made week by week in this destructive war. Consider for a moment what would have been the effect on conditions to-day jf the present efforts to save infant life had been put into operation CO years earlier. There would to-day have been more than half a million additional men between 20 and 40 years of age available for the field or for the workshop: those of that age who are serving their eouutry would have been stronger and more stalwart; whilst the incapables woul'd have been far less ■ numerous. Men and women are a crop of slew growth; it takes 20 winters and 20 summers to bring them to maturity. Sorely dees this country of ours miss those men and women whom we might have had; screl.y will it need the babies of to-day to make the men and women of the Next Generation, and cruel will he the wrong to the future if we wittingly v\>ow one of these little ones to perish. This surely is the very time of times to make us value life when it is ben:/-"

1 poured o-t in sacrificial floods by j every country of Europe, and wc ! should remember that it is the highest | typo of human life that is flowing forth like water through a riven e:v;- , bankment—all this precious stream of i vital force spent, and henceforth lest to us. . The cvlcrs amongst us recall the very beginnings of these lives that here have their premature ending: it seems but a very short time ago that they were helpless in infancy, and ;.!! the glory of their manhood hung en that slender thread. Who grudges now the ceaseless care that watched ami kept them safe, though it has proved to be only for this brief brightness of their shortened days? Should not the tragedy of these lives cut off' make us value more than ever all human life? ShouM it not make up eager to safeguard lifq at its source? What was once called a "devastating torrent of babies" seems rather different to-day; in truth it was a river of life, no devastating torrent; the men that fight and die in France and Flanders were the drops that made the stream. These, alas! wc canot bring back: but we can care for the now life that still comes, and surely we ought at this

time to give greater care than ever tc retain this rich and sacred dower of life. It is therefore truly timely that there should be renewed effort, to preserve infant life and health. The measures asked for in your article are simple. They start from a basis already proved to be sound. It would be presumptuous in me to attempt to gi into details. I would only add this: If it should be at all practicable there should be notification —not necessarily registration—of stillbirths as wel'l as of living infants. The Notification cf key to all measures necessary for dealing with the parental conditions which we now know to be almost as destructive to life as are tiie perils of infancy. The opportunity is groat. May it 1)0 the happy task cf the President of the Local Government Beard to make full use of it for the present and future welfare of the next generation. —Yours trulv.

Benjamin Broadbent, A Vice-chairman of the National Association for the Prevention of Infant Mortality. Gmtcsgarth, Huddersficia,- June IC. Wo are most anxious that our members should fully realise the great, and Imperial nature of the. work to which they have put their hands, and we trust that a study of Air. Broadbent's letter will cause them to take an added interest in "helping the mothers and having the babies.''-' .We therefore make no apology for putting off the continuation of our article on Food until next week.