IMPROVED HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 189, 12 August 1938, Page 7

IMPROVED HEALTH

SURVEY IN BRITAIN MINISTRY’S ANNUAL REPORT (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Aug. 10. In presenting the- annual report of the Ministry of Health, Mr. W. E. Elliot claims that it shows a record of steady improvement in the heaitn of the people. Referring to the national health campaign the repoit says that the full effect cannot yet be assessed, although figures of attendances at infant welfare centres and anti-natal clinics already give indications of its value in bringing home to many thousands of people by means of leaflets, posters, films, and public meetings the scope and nature of the health services. The statistics of public health generally show a maintenance of or an improvement on the previous year’s figures. The maternal mortality rate ir. 1937 was 3.1 a 1000 births, the lowest figure ever recorded. Public Assistance. The section on public assistance records that the total cost of our relief was £16,829,000 against £19,834,00b in the previous year. The year 1937 showed a further great advance in the work of moving people from slums and the new provision for the abatement of overcrowding, and improving housing conditions for agricultural workers were also recorded. Since 1933, 800,000 people have moved from the slums into new houses. Property, housing a population of 227,190 persons, was declared for clearance by local authorities, who also built 77,944 new houses, of which 56,726 replaced slum dwellings. Interesting passages are devoted to the expansion of town and countryplanning. The acreage of land under planning control increased by 750,000 acres, to a total of 24,163,000 acres, representing nearly two-thirds of the total acreage of England and Wales. Local Finance. The importance and extent of the work discharged under local government in Britain are shown by of local finance given in the report In 1935-36, the last period for which the figures were available, the local authorities collected £164,914,084 in rates, besides receiving £132,947,808 from Exchequer grants and £183,451,443 from other sources, such as trading undertakings and housing estates. During the same year they spent £470,884,559 on revenue account. New legislation made available to boys and girls between 14 and 16 years of age the medical benefits of national health insurance and provided a scheme of pensions for “blackcoated workers” and others outside the scope of compulsory insurance.