MATERNITY NURSES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 234, 30 September 1908, Page 8

MATERNITY NURSES.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—May I further encroach upon your generosity for just one last word in connection with our Maternity Nursing Hospitals? The "Star" of Setpt. 26 contained some important remarks made by the Attorney-General re State nurses. Sir Joseph Ward has been true to his promise to consider the vexed question of giving State aid to workers' wives whose husbands are unable to provide proper care and comfort for them at a time when every mother, no matter what nationality, should receive of the best. The idea of charitable aid at such a time did not commend itself to Sir Joseph, and he has dealt with this question from a national standpoint, and decided that the public purse must bear the expense, which, under the serious circumstances of our declining birth-rate, it was bound to do. Many no doubt will say that the circulation of the bill is a political dodge, but this cannot he, for the agitation was late in coming, and the seriousness of the question was so apparent, that Sir Joseph Ward, to his credit, at once made a move in what promises to be of the greatest importance to the prosperity |of New Zealand State nurses. —I am, E. NICOL.