OUR BABIES

Waikato Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2391, 1 November 1924, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(By "Hygeia.") (Published under the auspices of the Boyal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children). "It is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom." > GENERAL CONFERENCE. The- tenth general conference of the Society was held in .Wellington last month, and was attended by about IL'O delegates from all parts of the Dominion. We hope our readers will bo interested in the addresses which were delivered at the opening ceremony. Chairman's Remarks. His Worship the Mayor of Wellington, who presided, said: "There is widespread interest in this Society's work in every part of New Zealand. There' may be some controversy about political matters, there may be some controversy about municipal matters, and there may be controversies about other matters; but there is no controversy about the value of the work done by the Plunkct Society. That Society cares for the infants . . . and, most important of all, it educates the mothers in bringing up their little babies." His Excellency's Address. "It. is a great privilege to come here to meet you ladies from all parts of the Dominion who are interested in work of such immense importance to the mothers and to the future generation. I have been furnished with literature giving some particulars of the work carried out by the Society, and I think it is really amazing when one reads the figures showing what has been accomplished since the year .1907.

I notice that in the City of Dunodin —with which, I think, Dr Truby King was intimately associated in those days —the rati; of infantile mortality from the two principal diseases of infants under two years of age was 25 per thousand in that year (1907), and in the last two years it is nil. (Applause). And the figures comparing the infantile mortality from those two diseases in different parts of the world are extraordinarily illuminating. I noticed in reading through these papers that the Australian Commonwealth averages .18 per thousand; Great Britain and the United States .15 per thousand; and the Dominion of New Zealand in the last two years is, I think, 4.2 per thousand. Well, these; figures speak for themselves, and the sooner everybody in the world, it seems to me, adopts the methods which are in vogue in New Zealand the better for the rest of the world. It seems to me also that it is a. matter of which New Zealand may be extraordinarily proud that she leads the way in this work of the care of the mothers and the children, and therefore, the pleasure of meeting so many, delegates from. ;ill parts of the Dominion, who are devoting so much of their time find so much of their labour to further this great cause, is immensely added to by the fact that one -realises how very successful your efforts have been in the past. And it is in the hope, and indeed in the belief, that those efforts will be continued and will meet with further success that I have the greatest pleasure in declaring this conferense open." '(Applause). Speech by the Minister of Health. "The Society has gained steadily in the esteem and confidence of both the public and the Government; and one of my chief aims, throughout my short term of office as Minister of Health, lias been to foster and strengthen the ties between the Health Department and the Society. Our effort has been to bring about complete unity of aim and purpose; and T may at least claim this measure of success: never before has there been such harmony throughout the Health Department itself, and never,before lias there been so strong a desire on the part of the Department to avail itself to the full of the invaluable service's the Plunket Society can render in the cause of mother and child.

This is neither the time nor the phice If) say much about maternal mortality, though this is one of the burning' questions of the hour, nor about, our unduly high, infantile death rate in the first week of life; hut what I have to say in this connection is fortunately entirely hopeful, i feel confident of the cooperation of such a Society as this, which has made such a great success in its work; and with its co-operation in the added work of solving the problem of maternal mortality they will succeed gloriously, as they have done in the oilier of their "achievements. lam sure that the IMunkct Society, working in conjunction with the Health Department, will play a very important part indeed. The main thing after all is practical education and training of the mothers and nurses, and T am quite satisfied that nowhere else in the world is there any organisation which can interest and educate parents in the laws and intimate needs of the home and the family as well as the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. As .Minister of Health I cannot adequately express niy appreciation of the