THE CARE OF CHILDREN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7338, 26 February 1902, Page 3

THE CARE OF CHILDREN.

The question of the sale of drink to children has been agitating the public mind; in France as well as in Great Britain, and it is to the credit of the Frenchmen that they have taken a much more humane and sober view of the question than did the British Government. A law forbidding the sale of drink to young children came into force in France on Jan. 1. The avowed object of the measure is not .merely to prevent the children from obtaining a taste for liquor but to help, in some measure, in the repression of alcoholism, which is said to be ravaging the country. Side by side with the spread of absinthe-drinking in France is the spread of tuberculosis, which has appeared to an alarming extent amongst the recruits for the army, in the public schools, and in every department of civil life. To strike at the very roots of the evil, a- Society has just been formed in Paris, upon the initiative of Dr Emile Dubois, deputy of the Seine, with the title "For the Child." The sole object of the Society is the preservation of the young citizen from phthisis. Through its agency children who are predisposed by heredity, or who ha-ve contracted the malady by unfavourable surroundings, will be sent to live in the country or by the sea, where they may completely rid themselves of the disease germs. In other- ways, too, the French are endeavouring to protect the children and to rear up a- healthy nation. It is proposed to introduce stringent laws for the regulation of the hours and conditions of labour of children. Then, again, the infant mortality reaches the enormous figure of 40 per cent, and that in a country of which the population is stationary. A group of societies, called the " Mutualites Maternelles," has taken, this matter in hand. Under the patronage of their wealthier sisters the working women are uniting to help poor maternity. It is common among the poorer classes for a mother to resume heavy work too soon after childbirth, and the " Mutualites Mnttf nelles " will now provide funds, so that the mother may be well cared for and may take the requisite rest.