OUR BABIES.

Mataura Ensign, 3 July 1914, Page 6

OUR BABIES.

' —♦ — By Hygeia. Published under tie auspnoes of the Society far the Health of Women and Children. "Tt. is wiser toput up a fence at . the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." PUBLIC HEALTH MANIFESTO. iji is now nearly two years since the owing manifesto was issued by the Public Health Department for the purpose of promoting the extension of the work of the Society for the Health of Women and Children,..and I think that it is highly desirable that the broad issues should be kept clearly in mind by everyone interested iu the welfare of our country And the health and happiness of its people. OTJR-BEST IMMIGRANTS. In the next 10 years oyer 250,000 (a quarter of a million) children will be born in New Zealand. BABIES BORN HEALTHY. Almost evejjy new-born babe is capable of Ifving and doing well if properly treated, but owing to the ignorance and neglect of health and proper attention most of our mothers and babies arc not as strong and well as they should be. A vwy large proportion of the babies suffer from diarrhoea and malnutrition which handicaps their for the rest of life, and some 1500 di« ©very year. It is safe to say that this death-rate can.be reduced to less that half by simple practical instruction o1 the mothers an their homes and else where by means of competent trjainec nurses. The first essential is that wo men shall be taught in a simple, prac tical way-the laws and needs of lifeii respect, to. fresh air, suitable food, 'regu lar txorciSe, clothing, etc. ASSETS VERSUS LIABILITIES. Every h«althy young mother as wortl over £3OO to the country. (This means say, £70,000,000 as the ultimate potential eeonorhio value of thi quarter of a million babies who an gointr to be entrusted to us in the nex 10 years!) Every unhealthy wastre and dependent who has to be kept b; the public is a grave liability instead o beine an asset. There are, for instance at the present moment many insan< persons and other unfortunates wh< have cost the Dominion from £SOO ti £IOOO each in maintenance, whicl sometimes extends over an unbrokei period of half a century. Hospital {public and private) are costing us di xectly about £500,000 (half a million) i year, to say nothing of the enojrmou loss entailed by chronic debility am the withdrawal of nurses and invalid from spheres of work which would giv' a return to the country. We want to pre vent our normal assets from oontimiin. to be converted' through ignorance anu neglect into grave liabilities. The s:ckness and. debility of babies is due to ignorance, rarely to intentional neglect or cruelty. ILL-HEALTH LIFE'S MAIN HANDICAP. The main cause of submergence and failure in the battle of life is ill--ealth. Our expenditure on hospitals and charitable aid will keep on growing as long as we continue rearing and educating the race in ignorance, and indeed in defiance of the primary laws of Nature. We must become more sensible, normal attdi healthy in our habits; we must get back nearer to Nature; we must avail ourselves more and more fully of ascertained knowledge as to the simple, beneficent, easily understandable, easily followed laws of healthy living. 'lf man -would but make use of his present knowledge regarding what IS needed for the health of human being?, as lie is making use of similar knowledge in the perfecting of plants and animals, there would bo no ground for setting m> further Commissions to inquire in hi the causes underlying the recognised tendency to degeneracy on the part of civilised manhood—there would be no undue degeneracy to worry about. With all our advantages in the present day, the human race should unquestionably be advancing, not falling behind. Tihe first »trp in the Jine of prepress must be a ivneral recognition of the dnty of heafcii :> 'id the rights of the next generation, winch we can best promote by establishing the health of women and children.

WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE. Every country has Just as many unfortunates, invalids, arid criminals as it deserves, no more! 111-health means un emp loyal) leuess; unemployableness means-morbid thought and feeling; and morbid thought and feeling mean loafing, vice and crime. OUR BEST IMMIGRANTS AIIE THE BABIES.