DR. F. TRUBY KING'S PAPER 265 



make all the difference to the baby, the difference 

 between health and debility or actual sickness. 



REDUCTION OF DEATH-RATE. 



Although the infantile death-rate in New Zealand 

 was originally one of the most favourable in the world, 

 and we were told only a few years ago that it could 

 not be appreciably lowered, the results have proved 

 otherwise. To quote from this year's report of the 

 Dunedin Branch of the Society : 



"The Society for the Health of Women and 

 Children was founded just five years ago. Taking 

 the seven years from 1900 to 1907, the average 

 death-rate among children under one year in Dunedin 

 and suburbs was 8 per cent. For the last five years 

 the average has been 6^ per cent. ; for the last three 

 years 6 per cent. ; for the last two years 5 per cent. ; 

 and for the last year 4 per cent. If the infantile 

 death-rate for the whole Dominion were similarly 

 reduced from 8 per cent, to 4 per cent., it would mean 

 a saving of nearly 900 lives every year. But that is 

 not all. One must remember that a reduction in the 

 infantile death-rate involves a reduction in the death- 

 rate among older children also ; indeed, looking 

 ahead, it means a lower death-rate throughout the 

 whole community. 



u But the Society is less concerned in reducing the 

 death-rate than in improving the health of the people. 

 As a Health Society -we are more interested in firmly 

 establishing the all-round fitness of the 24,000 or 

 25,000 annual new arrivals who will live, than we are 

 in reducing the potential deaths from 2,000 to 1,000. 

 However, the problems are intimately related, since 

 the simple hygienic measures which tend to prevent 

 death in babyhood are also the measures which lay 

 the foundations of strong healthy minds in sound 

 enduring bodies for those who survive to be our 

 future men and women." 



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