LARGER FAMILIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 231, 30 August 1937, Page 8

LARGER FAMILIES.

ADEQUATE HOUSES NEEDED

While the British Ministry of Health is urging parents to have more children, parents are retorting that the Ministry’s request amounts to a challenge to local authorities to undertake housing schemes. Sir Ewen Maclean, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Welsh National School of Medicine, at a conference of medical officers of health, spoke of the effect of environment on the expectant mother. He quoted the case of a young employed couple who had settled in a tiny house. When it was known that a baby was expected the landlady said: “We can’t have babies here. It will disturb the neighbours.” The couple hurriedly found indifferent quarters elsewhere. Dr Agnes Nicoll said that it was a shame that, in Britain, young people could not have babies without danger of being turned out of tlieir homes. If legislation was a solution, it would be a disgrace if it was not attempted. At present the Minister of Health (Sir Kingsley Wood) is conducting a nation-wide inquirv into ways of encouraging an increase in the population, including the housing problem.