The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1939 MATERNITY BENEFITS FIRST.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14067, 14 February 1939, Page 4

The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1939 MATERNITY BENEFITS FIRST.

far as tiie hospital boards are concerned,” the JVlinister of Health said recently, “the maternity benefits under the social security scheme are uext in importance to the hos pital benefits.” l’robably Mr Fraser would agree, however, that so iar as the nation is concerned, maternity benefits rank first in importance. Tha permanence or otherwise of any scheme will be determined by the coming generations. Unless sufficient new and healthy workers are reared tc take the place of and support those retiring or laid aside in hospital, no social security scheme can be secure. The Government is arranging to collect and distribute pensions and benefits, but the means can only be found through the productive effort of the able-bodied, a labour force that must be endlessly renewed by travail and birth. The mother and child are therefore the foundation of social security in perpstuity and their car© should com© first. Mr Fraser would win universal approval if he recognised that prior claim. It is apparent that, in spite of his efforts, the operation of the general health benefits will be delayed for some time after April 1. Need the same apply to the maternity benefits? They fall into a special class, a separate section that could be segregated from the main endeavour and expedited. In certain parts of the United States, parents used to look on children as their future pensions. To regard infants as guarantors of security in old age may seem utilitarian, but fundamentally it is true. The future can he secured or guaranteed in no other way, a fact Mr Fraser should acknowledge by giving the right of way in his scheme to maternity benefits and services.