OUR BABIES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 566, 10 May 1913, Page 6

OUR BABIES.

(By Hygeia). ■

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." GOVERNMENT HEALTH CAMPAIGN. In June, 1912, the Minister of Public Health, struck by the steady decline in tha infantile death rate, and recognising that the Society for the Ileßlth cf Women and children was performing a beneficient public function wherever it had been established, decided that the work should be still further extended. For this purpose ha arranged that Dr Tiuby King, the founder of the society, should be released from his other official duties in order to undertake an extensive lecturing tour throughout the whole Dominion, with the object of setting up permanent organisations in every place visited, for the purpose cf carrying on the work. Local committees were to be formed in every township where a body of earnest women could be got together who could devote themselves to furthering the welfare of the women and children in their neighbourhood. in the direction indicated by the aims and objects of the society, as set forth on the inside o? the cover of this report. REPESENTATIVE COMMITTEES.

In the formation of committees ape cial emphasis was laid on the necessity of members being as widely representative as possible, including all religious sects and all classes of the community. From one centre it was expected that a Plunket Nurse could work the townships within a radius of fifty miles or so. The narse would be resident at the centre, and would make periodical visits to the neighbouring towns and the outlying districts, every week, every month, every quarter, or c very six months or 30 according to circumstances. The local committee in each case would arrange matters beforehand—visits to schools, mothers' meetings, demonstrations, homes to be visited, etc. —so that the utmost use could be made of the nurse's time. Between the nurse's visits the local committee would carry on the work. It is usually found possible in every community to secure one or two capable, largehearted women who, having gained knowledge or received benefit themselves, prove able and willing to assist th«ir neighbours. Beßides the lectures and the establishment of committees and Plunket Nurses, the Minister of Public Heatlh wished Dr Truby King to get into touch with the local newspapers in each centre, so that the circulation of the society's "Our Babieß' Column" might be still further extended. LECTURING TOUR. Dr and Mrs King startad on the campaign last July, and con:luded it in December. Their journeyings extended from Whangarei and Dargaville in the north to the Bluff and Orepuki in the south. Over sixty new committees were formed, making up the branches of the society to seventy in all. One hundred public lectures were most of them being illustrated by lantern slides, and twenty-six committee meetings were attended, where addresses were delivered, questions answered, and plans for working discussed. The newspaper editors were called on in the various places visted, and besides proving most sympathetic, practically all of them agreed to help on the work society, by publishing the weekly "Our Babies Column." In localities where branches of the society already existed, meetings had been arranged beforehand by the local committees. In order to effect this, many of the members had gone round the country at great personal expense and trouble, addressing meetings, arousing interest, and assuring good attendances by getting together committees to arrange matters ahead. This greatly facilitated the work of the lecturer, and added much to the success of the tour, as most of the temporary committees formed the basis of the permanent associations. In districts where such preliminary work had not been done the task was much harder, because leading people and those likely to be interested had to sought cut personally and inter viewed, and all arrangement for lectures, etc., had to be made. However, in most places in the Dominion the society already had some ardent supporters, and many babies were brought to the meetings who had been reared on the lines advocated by the Society for the Health of Women and Children, or, aa the mother often put it, "He was brought up on the society's book." INCLINING AND TRAINING SCHOOL GIRLS FOR HOME LIFE. Every year more attention is being given by the society as a co-operating with educational authorities with a view to kindling and quickening the interest, feeling, and capabilities of girls in the direction of home life, especially in matters affecting their own health and happiness and bearing on th 9 care and nurture of babies and little children. In the course of their recent tour of the Dominion, Dr and Mrs Truby King visited a number of schools, and addresses on "Health and Fitness" were giVßn both to boys and girls. They found that by .far the keenest interest and enthusiasm were manifested where girls were given a living demonstration on babyhood, everything shown being referred directly or indirectly to a real live, winsome baby brought into the classroom for the purpose by one of the society's nurses. This has also been the experience where it has been tried by the Plunket Nurses themselves and the master of one of our leading technical Bchools has assured us that the influence of a well-thought-out sympathetic series 'of such talks and practical de monstrations, given by the local Plunket Nurse to the girls and young women of his own school proved most welcome, attractive, and beneficient in its influence.