THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JULY 19, 1909. FOUNDLING HOSPITALS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14579, 19 July 1909, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JULY 19, 1909. FOUNDLING HOSPITALS.

The resolution which, at tho instance of the city coroner, Mr Gresliam, lias been carried by the Auckland Branch of the Liberal and Labour Federation, urging the Government to establish foundling hospitals in tho Dominion, opens up an exceedingly wide and extremely serious question. It is generally suggestive of a sad reflection upon civilisation that the need should apparently exist for the extension to a young country like New Zealand of a. system which hitherto has been confined to the crowded centres of population in the Old World. .Since the earliest instance on record of the establishment of a foundling hospital, at Milan in tho first century, this system of caringj for abandoned infants has been widely adopted. Cities such as Paris, .Moscow, St. Petersburg, London, and Rome all have tlwir foundling hospitals, and it is largely upon the statistics furnished by tho workings of these institutions that tho outcome of their establishment has to be ganged. The reason for action in Auckland in this matter is, doubtless, the assumption that at the present time there is a decided increase in the mortality cf illegitimate infants. That is to say, tho satisfactory decrease in the death rate of children of tender years which has followed tho instruction <nvcn to mothers in regard to the proper feeding of their" oif spring is in' danger of being largely lost to the State by reason of a growing practice of infanticide. Unfortunately .there are 110 exact statistics available in the Dominion to prove or disprove this, statement of the ease. But, if we may assume that the conditions prevailing in Victoria are not very different from our own, there is ground for grave disquietude. Computed on averages of five years, it is estimated that in New Zealand only sevonty-four infants under one year of age die in every 1000 bom, as against eighty-seven in New South Wales and Victoria. And tho Victorian figures— tho only ones available—show that, computed 011 the saino five-yearly average, rather more than one hi every five illegitimate infants die within a year of birth, while the mortality of legitimate children is only ono in thirteen; or, to put it another way, a legitimate child has, on these figures, nearly a tlu-ee to one chance of living as cosipared with an illegitimate ; u'fant. A careful "analysis of the causes of death in the case of tho illegitimate infants shows that, after due allow.-uice is made for the difliculty of rearing, children deprived of their natural food, there is room for serious supposition . that a considerable percentage of the mortality is due to wilful neglect, if not criminal exposure, or even worse, on the part of the mothers. Even taking the most favourable view of the case, and entertaining the hope that morals in New Zealand are a shade 'better thaji in Victoria, we still have to face the 'fact that, as an outcome of existing social conditions, there is a sad waste of child life, which ought to be, and should be, preserved and made a substantial national asset. • When, however, this is admitted, it by no means follows that tho real remedy lies in the establishment of foundling hospitals. Iu Paris,' where tho system has hall tho fullest scope and development, tho facts and figures are the reverse of convincing. The foundling hospital in that city is capablo of accommodating 700 infants, and such an establishment necessarily comprehends the subsequent caring for the children in the Shape of boarding them out. It is distinctly disconcerting to be told that one-seventh of the total number of children born in France pass through the foundling hospital, whilst the nameless horrors attendant upon, the boarding out system were all too realistically exposed by M. Zola in one of his novels. 011 the other hand, as the outcome of careful inquiry prior to admission, the operations of tho foundling hospital in London have been productive of little but good, and the co-operation of institutions like Di- Barnardo's Homes has had the fortunate result that numbers of these foundlings have won for tlieinSelves positions of trust iu society, and have oven in some instances attained to actual fame. The two common objections urged against foundling hospitals are that such establishments, by providing a refuge for abandoned infants, remove a deterrent from the practice of immorality, and that they cause, in a section of the community, a loss of the sense of parental responsibility. Wo are conscious that both theso propositions arc debatable, and that there is much to bo said ou both sides. We do mat propose at this juncture to enter into a discussion which involves a number of difficult and delicate issues, but we have said enough to show that tho Government ought not to embark upon an experiment of the kind advocated by the Auckland Liberal and ] <nboui' Federation without the most careful consideration. This consideration should bo based upon the most exact information gleaned from countries and cities where the foundling system lias been at work over a lengthy period of years.