THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1907. ANOTHER PHASE OF SOCIALISM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8551, 9 October 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1907. ANOTHER PHASE OF SOCIALISM.

We are slowly approaching a phase of Socialism when the State may find it essential to take in hand to a fuller extent than it has done the providing for the sick, the maimed and the halt, and also of the women that are to be the mothers of tho coming generation. Much has been done in all these directions during the past few % years. Benevolent institutions, old men and women's homes, maternity homes, homes- for children, industrial schools, etc., have been established with good results; but there is much more to be done in all these respects before the happiest results can be achieved. The success of „the advanced movement by the late Mr Seddon in the direction of providing maternity establishments, nurses, etc., has stimulat3d the philanthropic, tendencies of many colonists to seek still further benefits from the State in the cause of humanity. It is remarkable that in the cause of practical philanthropy women are usually the leaders, probably because their natural beneficent instincts urge them forward where men's reasoning faculties, based more or less upon a larger ! practical knowledge of mankind "in puris naturalibvs" (if one may be permitted the expression), and, perchance, somewhat of a spirit of contempt for the needy, holds them back. It is a case of instinct versus logic, and feminine instinct, ii may be thankfully acknowledged, has often helped to ameliorate the lot of the distressed and unhappy, who, left to the untenJer mercies of "reasoning masculinity" would never have been given a chance in life. These thoughts are suggested by the effort made by a number of ladies on Friday last to enlist the sympathy of the Minister of Public Health in the matter of infant life protection, by helping the mothers at a critical period. Their demand is to be applauded for the goodness of heart which prompted it, and, perhaps, its common sense. The latter feature is a matter which will be best judged later on when time shall

have decided upon its merits. The request of the "deputation of ladies was that the State should subsidise a medical man to attend, free of charge, upon poor mothers in their time of trouble. This is one way, in the opinion of ths deputation, to lessen infant mortality, as well aa to encourage increase of the birth-rate; but the Minister, limiting his vision to present expenditure rather than extending it to future national gain, pooh-poohed the idea. In the main, the present is, with the Government, the "main thing"; and yet, when, as recently, in the Legislative Council, and in the House of Representatives, the question of infant mortality cropped up, it was over and over again averred that every intant life brought to maturity represented many hundreds of pounds in value to the State. If Ministers are right when they hesitate at the immediate cost involved by the demand of the deputation, they are inconsistent when they, in an academical discussion on the subject on the floor of the House, deplore the enormous loss to the colony through infant mortality due to poverty and the shame of un • married parents, which the State takes no care to mitigate. The State evidently estimates the evil upon a purely commercial basis, and yet upon that basis hesitates to take i steps that will stop the leakage of profitable humanity, which it'dspfores. Is it not possible that from a commercial point of view, apart I from humanitarian and moral con- | siderations, the plea of Friday's deputation of ladies hdS something to I recommend it?