The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1934. OBSTETRICS HOSPITAL.

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 28 June 1934, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1934. OBSTETRICS HOSPITAL.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera. Manaia. Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Oeo, Pihanja. Opunake, Eltham. Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea. Alton, Hurleyville, Patea. Whenuakura. TVaverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangui, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata

The announcement that an agreement has been reached between the Minister of Health anil) the Otago Hospital Board in. regard to the building of an. obstetrics hospital will be received with widespread pleasure, especially by the women of the Domliln-ion. They made it their cause, a few years ago, to gather the funds -necessary (to establish a Chair of Obstetrics (i.n the Mfedical School of Otago University, and achieved as much as 'they had promised, and more; but the work of such a ehair is hampered because the training of students cahin.at. .be thorough-, where there is no central, modern, fully equipped hospital. .The Government, was to- have supplied' the wanlt of this in Dunedin- and! so to have made the endowment of the chair fully fruitful. The project was suspended, however, by the rapid -change in the national finances and later negotiations between the Otago ‘board and the Minister revealed differences -.So 'obstinate) that they could be watched only with anxiety. They appeared to have ended!, not long ago, in a deadlock, threatening the worst possible issue; for if the. Health Department had forced the reconstruction of St. Helens Hospital, an old and insufficient building, the new hospital would have been delayed for years to comic. Fortunately, the Minister has conceded something and the board raised the limit to which It was prepared to tax its ratepayers; and with the help of the Dunedin Savings Bank’s handsome gift of £6099, the cost of the hospital ou the revised! estimates is provided for. It is gratifying to find that the Minister and the board have resolved their differences, -but congratulations are principally ito the women of New Zealand whose organisation and financial help made the present project possible. At the annual meeting of the Wellington- branch of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Ohildrcn, Dr. Ada Paterson showed that the infant mortality rate for each 1999 live births was 31.69 last year and 31.22 in 1932, and described -these figures as c ‘ indrcdiibly -low’ compared with those of even a few years ago. The figure in' 1923 was 43.59, in fact, and did not fall below 35.99 until 1929. But she compared them also with Dr. William Br'end’s estimate that the irreducible figure is 25 fior each 1999 live births; and she gave it as her opinion t.ha't the trend of the New Zealand figures promised "certainly” a minimum below 25. The reduction of infant mortality, noble though that objective be, is only part of the goal. The mlatorna!' mortality figures of this Country are too high. It is tho obstetrical hospital and the advanced training of the medical School, made possible by the oiulowjnCnt of a professorial chair by the women of New Zealand, that the Dominion now looks- to as the most effective means of reducing tlio-se figures.