A NOBLE EFFORT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9081, 4 May 1908, Page 4

A NOBLE EFFORT.

If our great grandmothers could come down in the body to terra firma to-day they would be astounded to discover that their great granddaughters had forgotten the way to nourish their babies. Yet this fact is insisted upon by high medical authorities and confirmed by experience; and in many parts of the British Empire, including Australia and New Zealand, it is so fully recognised by humanitarians that associations are now being everywhere established for the preservation of infant life by instructing mothers how to feed.and care for their infantile offspring. Her Excellency Lady Plunket has done great work in this dominion by her platform and practical work in bringing about a reform in the- matter of the treatment of the helpless little folk. That good lady was the founder of the Society for Promoting the Health of Women and Children, which now has branches in various parts of New Zealand, and great benefits are likely to result from the instruction given to mothers in the matter of feeding and hygiene and rules for the upbringing of children. Through her efforts the State has been induced to issue a pamphlet to every person registering the birth of a child, so that there may be no excuse for ignorance in future. In Wellington the Society has just appointed an experienced

nurse to aid the objects of the institution, and it will, probably, not be long before other branches adopt a similar course. It may be noted that in New Zealand 10 per cent, of infant mortality has been proved to be due to improper feeding, and a much larger percentage is attributable to ignorance of mothers in regard to simple diseases that ought to be readily recognisable. If the efforts of the recently-organised society tends to bring this death-rate down to the irreducible minimum the wmnen composing it will have performed deeds more lastingly beneficial to their country than a victorious army in the field of battle.