DAY BY DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16748, 15 March 1926, Page 4

DAY BY DAY.

. . ,^_.

Having spent £8,500,000 upon the maternity bonus,

Child Welfare and Maternity Grants.

the Australian Government has discovered that this

grant does not fulfil the purposes for which it was designed. The Federal Minister of Health states that it has not decreased infant .mortality, saved the mothers, or increased tiic birth rate. The Minister's conclusion is no new one. Several years ago prominent authorities foimcd the same opinion, and desired lo replace the bonus by a system of grants for maternity and infant welfare agencies. But no Government lias yet had the courage to take away the bonus. In New Zealand, despite temptations to follow the Australian example before its error was demonstrated, we have followed a wiser course. We have made the money available in such a way that its use for the benefit of mother and child Is assured. In this way we have not only sa , \ed money (our public expenditure, is not one lithe of £8,500,000 over the same period), but, what is more important, wc have saved the babies. The lesson, w r e believe, is now well learned, and when there is more mohey lo spare few people would suggest its distribution in casii bonuses. Rather, they would advocate its application to such sterling works as those undertaken by the Plunket Society, the DayNursery, and the Mothers' Help Division. Direct cash subsidies such as the State can afford to give do not help to increase the birth rate, hut i» advice and help arc made readily availablejn the home the. burdens of mot'lTcrhood arc lightened.

Canadian credit stands rugh in Ihe

Canadian Credit In United States.

Unitcd States, going by the announcement of the oversubscription of a

Dominion Government loan of 40,000,000 dollars. The rate of interest is not given, but. the term of icn years is attractive by ils brevity. Two hours after the Subscriptions opened the loan was taken up. It would be interesting to knowjust how Canada does stand as a debtor to the United States, taking Dominion, provincial, and all other loans in which American investors arc holders. However, in 1925, from figures just available, the Dominion raised 264,33-1,000 dollars, of which 70,000,000 dollars was for the Dominion Government, 81,000,000 dollars for the provincial governments, 35,000,000 dollars for the National Railway, and 42,187,000 dollars for industries. This large amount, in the aggregate makes Australia's borrowing in America last year look very small at 70,000,000 dollars. New Zealand docs not figure, as an American debtor, bul' it is understood that "feelers" have been sent out from this Dominion—■ not from the Government—-to ascertain how New York would receive, an application for a very modest amount when comparison is made with the substantial amount of money borrowed by Canada last year, equal in sterling to roughly £52,866,000. —Post.