WASTE OF INFANT LIFE.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1987, 7 May 1906, Page 3

WASTE OF INFANT LIFE.

Speaking as a member of a deputation to the Queensland Government on the subject of infant life protection, Dr. Turner declared that “ in his opinion it would be no exaggeration to say that over 50 per cent, of bottle-fed babies died during the summer months in Brisbane.” Coming, as it does, from a recognised specialist, the Sydney ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ regards this as a profoundly serious statement. In nineteen years up to 1902 inclusive, there were 315,090 deaths of children under five years of age in Australia and new Zealand ; of these no less than 308,070 were of infants, placing in that category children under two years of age, and “ probably 150,000 of these deaths could have been prevented.” If, on grounds of humanity, the mind is moved by the thought that every day over forty babies perish in Australia and New Zealand, the mortality imperatively commands attention. The baoy, as a politicau said recently, is our best imigrant. While every young people needs an infusion of foreign blond, the first law of Nature demands the progressive increase of the native stock. If we accept Dr Muskett’s calculation that half the infant deaths could be prevented, it follows that Australia and New Zealand might gain at least twenty additions per day to their population, or nearly three time what the Commonwealth gained last year by excess of oversea arrivals over departures. “ For every baby fed on its mother’s milk who dies before the age of three months, fifteen babies die who have been fed by other means,” the Mayor of Huddersfield has announced, thereby corroborating in advance both Dr Turner and Dr Eleanor Bourne, of the Brisbane Children’s Hospital. The latter, as a member of the same deputation, remarked on the number of children brought to her '■ who suffered from the effects of improper feeding, and nothing else.”