SCHOOL FOR MOTHERS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13509, 26 August 1907, Page 7

SCHOOL FOR MOTHERS.

There was a very interesting meeting in London last month in connection with the new "School for Mothers" established in St. Pancras. The school is already doing useful work, instructing mothers and girls in the proper methods of clothing, feeding, and tending babies. There is a consulting room for mothers, where medical advice is given free; and the school governors have even established a provident fund. The experiment is being well backed, and among those present at the mooting we're Lord Robert Cecil, Lady Henry Somerset, Mrs. Humphry Ward, the Countess Russell, Sir Thomas Barlow, and Mr. George Alexander. Indeed, the presence of so many society people provoked one good dame to protest. "It ia impudence," she said, "on the part of ladies of the West End to come down and tell tho poor women how to bring up their children. Feed them as much as you will, but teach them you cannot, you ought not, and you dare not." The general note of the speeches was struck by Lord Robert Cecil, when ho declared that ot the 120,000 deaths of infants in tho Old Country each year 60,000 could and should be prevented. Sir Thomas Barlow emphasised once more tho necessity for treating artificial foods and prepared milk as " second best " and purely temporary foods. The natural feeding of infants, he insisted, Avas the only measure that could reduce tho terrible tale of infant mortality. Sir Thomas enforced the lesson by reference to the Black Country, where, he said, although the people were living under the very worst conditions possible, tho death-rate of the infants was low, a happy result due to the fact that in almost everx instance the children were being nursed by their mothers. Tho St. Pancras school, it was stated, was already displaying trophies "of success in the shape of "comforters of rescued babies. There were some bright spots among tho speeches, as when Mr. George Alexander, who is now a London County Councillor, condemned "the sham-shy-ness of the well-bred," which insisted that young ladies ought to leave the room at the bare mention of babies. Mr. Bernard Shaw, too, though absent from the meeting, added a touch of originality to the proceedings by advocating in a note to the chairman the State endowment of motherhood.