THE NURSERY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3711, 21 December 1912, Page 3

THE NURSERY.

MOTHER'S INQUIRY AS TO NINE-MONTHS-OLD BABY.

(By “Mater.”)

Published under the auspices of the Society for the Health of Women and Children. “It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

BRIBING THE BARENTS

r l lie bribe of £.j a head now being paid by the Australian Commonwealth, not to the babies themselves for their benefit, but to the parents who do just as they please with it, strikes me as being the most extraordinary, illogical, and useless waste of public money that lias ever been entered on in the name of childhood,* but really for the sake of jmlities. The indignant Australian boy may well say, “Where do I come in?” Where does lie eome in? The bonus is paid alike to all; the mother of the most wronged illegitimate infant can get five pounds worth of finery for herself, simply because she lias imposed life on a little victim whom she niay neither keep nor care for, and wno enters our world tainted sometimes with cruel and incurable disease —a grave responsibility for us; not for her. But, apart altogether from such cases, what good will the £5 bonus confer on any child—what fraction of the £IBOO a day, which the Australian cables inform us are now being paid out, will be spent on the baby, or, indeed ; on anything tending directly or indirectly to the benefit or elevation of motherhood or babyhood P AVILL THE BRIBE BRING AIORE BABIES? Does anyone seriously think that the bonus is going to tempt even the most thoughtless couple in the world to deliberately incur an annual expenditure several times greater than the single sum of £o, receivable once for all? Is such a sum going to induce parenthood if a child is not desired on natural grounds ? One hundred pounds is a common affiliation award for the half-share responsibility of one parent. AVHO HATCHED THE BONUS IDEA? . AVitli. singular unanimity the newspapers have ascribed the five pound

bonus to the exigencies of a political situation, and have freely referred to it as the five-pound bribe; but this conveys only the more immediate motive of the bonus, not the -ultimate source of the idea. That lies deeper. ENDOWMENT OF PARENTHOOD. The desire, genuinely and adequately, to endow parenthood has. long been a dream of humanitarian statesmen; but probably" Benjamin Broadbent, Mayor of Huddersfield, with his small citsh reward inspiration, comes nearer than anyone else to being the originator of the idea which has borne such costly, strange, and grotesque fruit when grafted on to a different stock, under new conditions, in Australia. As all the world knows, Mr. Broadbent, some seven years ago, issued formal promissory notes to the people of Huddersfield, undertaking to pay a guinea to each mother who had a breast-fed baby alive at the end of 12 months. The "result was an astonishing increase of breast-feeding, and a corresponding decrease in infant mortality. But the Mayor deserved and achieved much more than this. He did not limit himself to the mere issue of promissory notes; ,he earnestly studied, questions bearing on the wellbeing of mother and child, and lectured and otherwise disseminated helpful information, thus arousing increased interest in the care of the children.

The guinea, was offered as a reward and inducement for doing the best for : the infant after it was horn, not as a bribe to give birth to a baby; and : small as was the sum promised, it actually proved effective. In,the first place, the novel idea gained a hearing for sound, wholesome advice, directing attention to the mother’s health, and breast-feeding; and j in the second place, the guinea dki : prove an actual incentive to the suck- ■ ling of babies in the case of the very j poor population, for whom it was in- j tended. It was quite natural, and, j indeed, reasonable, of the indigent mo- j tlier to say to herself, “Well, the ; Mayor has convinced me that breast- j feeding .is best and easiest for myself and my child; and, since he offers a j guinea into the bargain, I’m going : to deserve and win it.”

One may safelj- say that each guinea spent by Benjamin Broadbent was likely to do more good than an average hundred, pounds of the largesse now being recklessly scattered broad- ; cast by the Commonwealth politicians ; . indeed, there is justification for the contention that in some directions the Australian bribe tends to be harmful I and demoralising. Can anyone pretend to expect any j benefit to the cause of . higher mother- j hood and babyhood from such a 1 scheme ? j

THE NEW ZEALAND SCHEME. Contract the above with what may be called the New Zealand scheme—in other words, the work of the Society for the Health of Women and Children, which had its inception over seven years ago, and has gradually evolved into a broad public-health organisation, binding together the whole community in one sympathetic, selfreliant, co-operative effort for mutual aid and education in the claims and needs of motherhood and babyhood. With us, what is learned by the Phmket Nurses, at the Society’s special Baby Hospital in conveyed by them to the local committees and to the mothers, and thus spreads from one household to another, aided by some 200,000 copies of “Our Babies” column appearing weekly throughout the press of the Dominion, and by the Society’s books and pamphlets. To effect the above without State aid was scarcely to be expected, and the Society appreciates the generous support accorded by the Government, the subsidies now authorised amounting to rather over £2OO a year. However, this sum suffices for a million of population, and is not a sixtieth of the £125,000 a year that it would cost to merely pay a five pound bonus per baby, without doing anything at all in the way of educating the community or appreciably bettering the lot of mother or child. From first ”'to last the Society has been peculiarly fortunate in receiving generous help from a number of public-spirited and humane people. The latest expression of this spirit is contained in the following letter, received last week by Dr. Trilby King, President of the Society, from Mr. Joachim. General Manager of the Westport Coal Company:-

“Dear Dr. King,—l am glad to hear you are going to lecture on the West Coast on the Health of Women and Children, and that there will probably be a Plunket Nurse establishment at Grey-mouth. 1 am, as you know, more especially interested in Westport and its neighborhood, and I feel confident that a nurse at Greymoutli will have as much as ever she can do to manage that and the surrounding places without attempting to come to Westport. “I have done what 1 can to ameliorate the life of the workmen at our mines; but so far I hare not been able to do anything for the workmen’s wives. Now, it seems to me that nothing can lighten the burden of life in the case of a mari ied woman who has to bring up a family and attend to her household duties so much as to give her the ben.'fit of the Society’s system to b<? taught first by yourself and Mrs King, and the teaching to be continued by a Plunket Nurse established in Westport, to take charge of that district, including Waimangaroa, Denniston, Burnett’s Pace, Birehfield, Granity, Millerton, and, if required, Mokihinui. To enable the necessary fund to be raised I am pleased to say that the Westport Coal Company will subsidise locally by giving £ for £ up to £IOO per annum for a- period of three years,, on condition that the Nurse’s services are to be wholly given to the places above mentioned. To start a local subscription, you can put me. down for £lO for the present year.” WHAT THE BONUS COSTS AUSTRALIA. The following reprint from a recent paragraph in the press shows what the £5 bonus is going to cost: “It is officially estimated” in Australia that about 120,000 claims will ho made each year for the baby bonus of £5 which the Commonwealth Government is now making. An arithmetical progress .indicates that parents are rapidly falling in with the new fashion of asking for a ‘fiver.’ ” Taking the above, it will bo realised that some £OOO,OOO a year willhave to ho paid out. In connection with the applications for the grants which are now coining in, it is a very frequent experience that parents • inquire carefully beforehand whether their names will have to he made public. They are assured that the utmost secrecy will be observed.