The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1917. "SAVE THE BABIES" WEEK

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 29, 29 October 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1917. " SAVE THE BABIES" WEEK

During ,this week the men and wom,on of New Zealand will'be invited to squarely face their responsibilities towards the baby. All who are inclined to lightly evade tho invitation would be wise to' first pause for a moment and consider ■what it involves. The babies of a country hold its future, but in addition to that they reflect its present as faithfully as any mir.ror. t A nation may bo partly judged from tho standpoint of religion, art, science, or its progress in the "humanitarian legislation" politicians are so fond of talking about. But in tho fundamental matters of a' nahealth and ability to perpetuate itself the best standard possible is the oondition of its babies. Wo need not stop to consider how far it is possible for a nation whioh habitually neglects its infant population to be religious, artistic, scientific, or of humanitarian bent. It is enough for practical purposes that a, nation unable to make a good showing of happy healthy babies is a nation to pray for, and that if such a nation continues in the same bad course it is only a matter of time when it will be past praying for. It is to be added, and this is the aspect of the matter that most closely concerns the average man and woman, that this question of the baby is not one in which it is_ possible to separate national and individual responsibility. The penalty invited by a nation which persistently neglects the baby is extinction. But there are immediate penalties which fall inevitably and immutably on the individual members of a nation which violates in .this way the laws of healthy growth and progress. Find anywhere a neglected baby or a vacant place where a baby ought to be and you will find also adult citizens of stunted life. It would be very shortsighted to regard the Baby Week campaign of the Plunket Society as only an effort on behalf of the infant population of the Dominion. It is muoh nearer the truth to say that it is an effort on behalf of all the people in JTew Zealand. Tho number of grown men and women _ in the country who can fairly disclaim interest or part in a campaign designed to promote infaut health and welfare is very small. Some at least of those who are piepared to regard such a campaign with indifference are giving the best possible proof that they have qualified for life's scrap-heap. All who are familiar with the work and aims of the Plunkot Society will igree that no better authority could have been found to organise and direct the baby week campaign in_ this country. Tho society is doing a noble work not only in immediately promoting the health and welfare of mothers and infants, but in a farreaching educational campaign which aims at awakoning tho public conscience in regard to issues that had been too long neglected. Since the society began operations ten years ago the infantile death-rate of the Dominion has fallen, in no small clegrco as a result of the devoted labours of its officials and workers, from seven and a half per cent, to five per cent. The far-reach-ing improvement in the health or the community which results from tho efficient care and nurture of babies is oven more important than the saving of so many infant lives. But while tho work of the society is already producing splendid fruits, it takes'the broadest possible view \of its mission and looks forward, as one of its members wrote recently, "to a loftier realisation of the privileges, duties, and responsibilities of home life and parenthood, on the part of the whole community, as necessary safeguards for all forms of health and fitness-bodily, mental and spiritual." There is, of course, much in the war and in the conditions it has produced which gives point and should give force to the educative appeal which is the central feature of Baby Week. At the most immediate view war demands and war statistics bave thrown into clear re-

fief widespread defects in health and physique; and also a limitation of families which, whatever. may he said of individunl cases, is felt in tho mass to be discreditable, and unworthy of a favoured country like New Zealand. But the war has done more than this. It lias ns to ponder the wisdom of ways we formerly took for granted, and material for thought is' certainly not wanting. We may apply to our case, with little reservation, what was said recently by a British writer of the Mother Country and other European States: —

In many ways tho war has brought \is up all standing on llie edge of an abyss. When it is all over shalt_ we go galloping over the edge, or, reining back, sit awhile in our saddles looking for a better track? We were all on the highway to a hell of material expansion and vulgarity, of cheap immediate profit, and momentary sensation; north and south in our different ways, all "rattling into barbarity." Shall we find pur way again into a finer air, where self-respect not profit, rules, and rare things and durable are made once more?

Oritioism of ourselves is not much in favour in New Zealand, but it strengthens the hopo and prospect that the Baby Week campaign may do much good that we aro not wholly untouched by the awakening to life's realities which the war has brought in its train as some compensation for all tho horror and misery it has caused. It is recognised, and widoly recognised, though in a somewhat dim and groping fashion, that wo have entered permanently upon a more strenuous, life; and must be prepared to meet demands of which wo were formerly unaware. In our awakening to the serious realities of life and our sharpened perception that care-freo drifting invites disaster, we aro faced by many puzzling and complex In the great national work which is to he given a special impetus during this -week, one road of progress towards a better life is clearly opened. By doing what in us lies to promote infant welfare and rejuvenate family life—tho two things, of course, aro inseparable—wo shall assist at once to purify and sweeten the life of our country and make it strong to bear whatever blows fortune may hare in storo.