The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 3, 1911. THE HOSPITAL CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 7, 3 July 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 3, 1911. THE HOSPITAL CONFERENCE.

The Hospital Conference, which has been sitting in Wellington, if it is successful in bringing about the reforms it counsels will do much for humanity. There is, of course, no guarantee that its advice will be acted on, but at least the.suggestions will occasion the authorities some thought. • The question of adding! maternity wards to all country hospitals is an exceedingly important one, and \f the suggestion is acted on will be of infinite service to country people. But it is to be hoped, should the idea be acted on, that these wards will be either detached or so far away from the general •'cases" as to make them attractive to •patients. The idea of close proximity would defeat the usefulness of the scheme. There can be no doubt that the State maternity honies, however, have been a great success, especially in their educational aspect. They have saved the lives pf many infants, and their insistence on natural feeding wherever possible has done much to upset m'any foolish ideas on the subject. The extension of the system to every hospital would extend knowledge and save Uvea.' The suggestion that the Health Act should 'be amended to define who is responsible for the burial of a person in cases of death where there are no money and no relatives is an acknowledgment that the present system in such cases is | grossly inhumane. It seems, for instance, that, although a. public hospital will tend a person with the greatest possible skill and care for nothing (supposing the patient to be penniless) it will hesitate to bury him if he dies. Hospital authorities apparently having no funds for the purpose are accused of inhumanity, but are, of course, in no way to blame for an imperfection in an Act. A perennial difficulty was mentioned at the Conference. The committal of children to industrial homes is common enough. In many cases this committal merely relieves unnatural parents of their liability—and it has been frequently found impossible to collect any portion of the "keep" of such children from their parents. If, as the Conference suggested, notice of intention to charge these children before a court (with being neglected and so on) were given, the authorities who are empowered to pay public money for their upkeep would be able to "get hold" of the relatives. Although it is the State'B duty to look after neglected children, it is also the State's duty to see that unnatural parents do not get off Scot free. Charitable aid boards have no very extended powers in the way of rescuing children from evil environment, and unless a child is physically neglected, interference is uncommon. It is only necessary to attend sittings of city police courts and city charitable bodies to understand how great the evil is. Such children quite naturally drift into evil ways. They are afterwards blamed and punished for sins they cannot help committing. Environment has much to do with the formation of character. The resolution in regard to the pensions of old-age pensioners who are not always sober, if it is acted on will do away with a great injustice. You cannot reform an inebriate by starving him, and we have in mind cases where aged and feeble people have lost the pension through inebriety. The most ardent prohibitionist will admit that this is most cruel. The magistrates, however, have had no option but (o "make an example" of poor old souls who are tottering down the declivity. If the inebriate old-age pensioner's certificate is handed to the charitable aid board of his district, ho will bo answerable to the board for good behaviour. We believe that this is the first time the Hospital Conference has suggested the enforcement of the "curfew law," under which it becomes an offence for young people to remain in the streets after a specified hour at night. The passage of a curfew law would be a direct accusation that there is a lack of parental control in the Dominion, and it is not ret proved that a home where parental control \* not exercised is a better place than the street. We made a suggestion when another body urged the passage of a "curfew law" that the parents of the youngsters who broke the law be considered the delinquents. It is absolutely useless expecting children to control themselves, and if parents cannot do it, the duty of the State is obvious.