WOMEN AND CHILDREN,

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17217, 7 December 1923, Page 7

WOMEN AND CHILDREN,

CONFERENCE AT DUNEDIN. P«R Press Association*. PUNEDIN, December 6. the annual conference of the Roval New Zealand Society for the Health of M omen and Children was held in the Town Hall this morning, the Mayor (Mr H. L. Tapley) presiding. Tho Hon C- .E. Stathara opened the conference, making some remarks on the excellent work carried out by the society. Dr Truby King in the course of his address said that with regard to the training of nurses and probationers the support of the society had been sought. He had made the tentative suggestion that the committee of the organisation thought it would be highly desirable to have a large body of girls trained for neriod, say. of three months; who -would be in a position to help in the household. There' were many arguments for and against. It was known that hospitals and institutions coukl not undertake the enormous work of training the girls for twelve months. The high fees which must be charged made it desirable for the society to provide girls to go into the home with a reasonable amount of knowledge, with a training that would enable them to render invaluable aid while not being able to deal with the more complex conditions undertaken by the Karitane nurses on the one hand and by the Plunket nurses on the other hand.

A deputation was appointed to wait on the Mayor to solicit financial support from the municipality. It was resolved to arrange if possible for facilities for medical students to study child-welfare in connection with all Plunket centres so far as the granting of such facilities will in no wav interfere with th 6 work carried out in the interests of mother and child.

A number of questions were held over for the general conference to be held at Wellington eight months DUNEDIN, December 6. Addressing the Plunket Society today, Mrs J. A. Johnstone (president) made gome important remarks on infantile mortality. The infantile death rate for 1922 for the four main cities of New Zealand, she said, was the lowest on record, namely, under 4.2 per 100 births. In 1921 the rate was 4.7 per cent. For the four cities the infantile death rates in 1922 were:— Auckland 4.3 per cent, Wellington 4.9 per cent, Christchurch 5.0 per cent, Dunedin 4.0 t per cent. “ Last year,'' the president continued, “ we drew attention to the steady decrease in the death rate of infants from the beginning of the second month to the end of the first year, the rate having gone down from 4 per cent when the Society started to 1.7 per cent in 1921. During the same period the death rate in the first month remained practically unchanged, namely, 3 per cent. In 1922 the rate from the beginning of the second month to the end of the first'year had declined further to 1.4 per cent.