A NATIONAL DANGER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 87, 11 April 1906, Page 8

A NATIONAL DANGER.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The system of obtaining a pure milk supply is now being realised as a question of national importance, as it strikes at the root of a decreasing popu-'. lation, because according to the purity of the milk supplied so does the increase or decrease of infant mortality fluctuate, and this means that for every infant that succumbs through being fed on adulterated milk many others live to grow up with an impaired vitality, and their children only carry forward to their future generations a terrible legacy of weakened constitutions, ready at any moment to absorb and reproduce in their own bodies those germs of disease which are most destructive to human life. It is a pitiful reflection that with our "so-called" higher l education, we cannot be more consistent in our laws relating to the saving of life. . Dangerous parts of machinery must be protected, noxious weeds destroyed, fruit trees sprayed, and still we shut our eyes to the fact that hundreds of babies may be slowly poisoned by living on milk to which preservatives have been added, or slowly starved to death, by the use of milk largely diluted with water. Many large towns in England now have a milk delivery under municipal management, having been forced to enter into the business owing to the terrible percentage of 154 deaths per 1000 of infants ' under 12 months old, whereas if those having the power to introduce laws with a direct bearing on this most vital question were to immediately devote sufficient time to the creation of such most necessary laws it would mean a rapid decrease in infantile mortality, and remove the necessity for a municipal supply of milk. Cannot we take this lesson to heart before the evil extends further, and the health of our little ones still left in such critical danger? Surely, on the score of economy we have no as we can afford to pay many inspectors whose duty it is to prevent an apple from becoming the home of a codlin moth, cannot we stretch a point in favour of our children and pay inspectors possessing the required knowledge in order to minimise the danger of disease and death approaching our helpless infants. "Is not the health of a child. worth many apples?"—l am, etc., PATER.