OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 29, 3 August 1925, Page 12

OF NEW ZEALAND INTEREST

CHILD WELFARE WORK

AN INQUIRE

(F»OJt OHE OTTN COMBSPONDINT.)

LONDON, 16th June.

"May I inquire," asks a writer in "John Bull," "whether any labour unions at home keep an oye on our young men who go out as emigrants? Ono hears of cases in New Zealand where farmers employ emigrants on a seventeen hours' day: from 5 a.m. to 9 and 10 p.m., with brief intervals for meals only. When the heavy working season comes, these farmers evade employing extra hands "by making these emigrants 'do double labour, with, no extra payment." SIR TRUBY KING "The sympathy of all who know anything about New Zealand," writes Sister J. ii. N. Paterson, in the "Glasgow News," "was extended to the Dominion lately on the death of her Prime Minister; likewise many will rejoice at the recognition shown her Director of Child Welfare, who was recently knighted, and now the first International Congress on Child Welfare, to be held at Geneva in August, brings this progressive Doniin-.j ion again before our notice. "Of the ;three main speakers on 'Infant Feeding,' it was decided that one was to .'be English-speaking, and the committee invited Sir Truby King, C.M.G., to come from New Zealand! His inability to comply with their request occasioned another choice being made, and Dr. Reginald 0. Jewesbury, children's physician, St. Thomas's Hospital, London, and hon. medical director of the Mothercraft Training Society's Centre, London (founded by Dr. Truby King and. run on his lines), has been invited to read the English paper as, being the chief exponent of Truby King's methods in . this country." Miss Paterson. goes on to speak of the growth of interest in the methods. "The evidence- from all quarters," she says, "shows that the simple lines laid down by Sir Truby King prove equally applicable in widely separated climates and circumstances, and that the fundamental needs of mother and child vary very .little between the Tropics and the Poles. No! It is is not the New Zealand climate. It has not changed in the last eighteen years. The infant death-rate has been halved during that period by the free education of all classes of parents in the rearing of their children. Prevention is the key-note in New Zealand." MR. WILFORD QUOTED Mr, Wilford's statement regarding the appointment of a committee to discuss tho union of parties is quoted by the "Western Morning News as an example for this country. "iWe believe that party _as pa,rty is dust when matters involving the maintenance of the Empire are concerned, and we believe ;dso that the Empire to-day seriously needs all the assistance possible." "'This remarkable utterance," «ays : the Plymouth journal, "does not proceed from any of the 'best brains' in English politics; such a sentiment, 'we fear, is far beyond their capacity for statesmanship, great as it no doubt is—in their estimation at any rate. It is an extract from a letter from the leader of the Liberal Party in New Zealand to the Dominion Prime Minister offering to appoint a committee to discuss the union of their-respective parties. It is an advance that recalls, indeed, the lines of Macaulay, 'When none was for a party but all were for the State,' and as such it breathes the spirit of the highest patriotism. We badly need such a sentiment m this country. A little of the spirit which inspired Mr. Wilford's letter to the Prime Minister of New Zealand would do more than anything else to help the country out of the difficulties which rise up on every side and threaten to submerge it in a general ruin." DAIRY CONTROL .^ c "Manchester Guardian Commercial has the following regarding the Dairy Control Board:— _ "Dairy farmers in the Dominion are imbued with the. idea that' under the existing arrangements they do not get full value for the produce they send to this country, and they think that by taking control of all shipments and by vrohibitmg f.o.b. sales they will get better returns. "Time will show. It was quite evident when the deputation was over here last summer that they did not fully understand the conditions on this side particularly as- to the high cost of distribution and the nature of the competition from Denmark, but London and Manchester importers did a good'deal to educate them up to these things, and some of them promised qualified support to the control scheme. In the 1926-26 season the control officials are to "work in co-operation with importers as far as i possible. Later on there may be interesting developments."