JURIES: FROM ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.

Otago Witness, Issue 1989, 10 April 1890, Page 42

JURIES: FROM ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW.

I notice that "Cigarette" has a little article on "Colonial Babies," but has left unsaid a few items which I shall supply. Ladies invariably hate visionary or ideal views of life. Never having an opportunity to view the dark side of it, they judge everything from their own standpoint. Judging from what we can gather from literature it is in the Home country only among the aristocratic classes that the baby is kept in the nursery, where its father or mother pay it periodical visits, much as we may imagine an animal fancier viewing his latest purchase. Among the middle and lower classes the baby is just as important a personage as it is out here.

It is quite reasonable that to the mother the baby should be a good memory trainer, and that it should be as it were the axis round which all minor events revolve, and that all dates should be reckoned from the time it cut its teeth or was so many weeks old. The mother has to bear so many trials on its behalf— more than a man can ever understand — and it is fit and becoming that she should be endowed with a passionate loving for it, so as to kindle, up her enthusiasm and so enable her to bear up so well against her trials and troubles in rearing it.

A clever physician, or Mr Spurgeon, for the point is disputed, once said that many men dig their graves with their teeth, implying thereby that they curtailed, their lives by gluttony. Many babies are in like manner gorged to death through being stuffed with different foods before they cut their teeth, when the mother's milk is sufficient for all requirements. I remember a few years back of an inque3t held on a baby in the Wakatipu district, at which the results of the medical post mortem examination disclosed the fact that the preserved milk on which it was fed .through the bottle did not afford it any nourishment whatever, and consequently it died of slow starvation.

In another case some children lost their mother and consequently were neglected, getting their meals at irregular or long intervals, and poor food at that. As a consequence, when they did get them, they were often ravenous and would over -feed themselves, and be ill all night. They were then placed. in a convent as boarders, and the nuns were obliged to place them on an allowance till they got their appetites under proper control, after which they soon became rosy and plump and never gave any trouble whatever. I know of another case in which the father's appetite was equal to that of three men and the children inherited this tendency. To make matters worse, meal times were very irregular, and then the children would gorge themselves till they could not stoop. Being strong and healthy they would often go off into a lethargic slumber after meals.

Too much meat eating by children and young persons is a great colonial evil. Careful observations in every age show that a meat diet does not develop a vigorous intellect. The book of Daniel significantly points this out. All the Bible teachings are as correct in the present age as they were when the various laws were laid down for the guidance of the people. « We cannot wonder that a baby should be such a welcome arrival in a household. A nice clean, healthy baby is a most pleasing spectacle, reminding one of purity and innocence combined. In the pages of Holy Writ it is in many cases recorded that the most cherished wish of aged, childless couples was a little child, and one was regarded as the most blessed gift that could be bestowed on them, and their rejoicings were very great when they got one. Coming to our present era, our Saviour consecrated infant life by going through all its trials, and then He afterwards ennobled for ever the whole race of babyhood when He said, " Suffer the little children to come, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Richard Norman.