NO RELAXATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 305, 26 December 1928, Page 3

NO RELAXATION.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT'S

EFFORTS,

MATERNAL MORTALITY RATS. ACCELERATION OF ACTIVITIES. "It should be clearly understood that there is to be an acceleration of the Health Department's efforts, rather than any slackening off, in the direction of reducing the maternal mortality rate in New Zealand," said the Minister of Health (Hon. A. J. Stallworthy) in an interview this morning. The Minister said that certain remarks made on Saturday morning, when he received a deputation relating to accommodation at St. Helens Hospital, appeared to have been misconstrued.

"I fully realise that the rate of three deaths per thousand in New Zealand cannot be regarded as a minimum, and on assuming office I had my mind made up to leave nothing undone to accelerate the activities of the Health Department, in order to reduce our Dominion maternal mortality rate substantially," said Mr. Stallworthy. "My predecessor, Mr. J. A. Young, declared this year that the Department would not be satisfied till the rate was brought down to three deaths per thousand births. I want people to understand that my objective will be even lower than that.

"It is absurd and unfair to talk about a 'tendency to complacency.' That cannot be charged against me. Although I have been Minister of Health for only a little more than a fortnight, I have already gone into the matter with the Director-General of Health (Dr. T. H. A. Valintine), who supplied me with a memo, on the subject. This memo. I mentioned on Saturday morning, although I did not say that I endorsed the expressions of opinion therein contained. "There will be no relaxation of the efforts of the Department," said Mr. Stallworthy, with emphasis, "and I think future statistics will reflect a policy of even more intensive concentration upon reduction of the death rate i than has been the case in the past."