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vii.
So that the Council may understand what is being effected in Islington,
I have devoted several pages (17-24) of the Report to Infant Welfare Work,
where there is given an account of the North, South and West Islington
Infant Welfare and Maternity Centres. They are all doing very good and
beneficent work, and are worthy of all the pecuniary and other assistance
which can be given them. The ladies who are conducting them so zealously
are giving their time and labour, and even money, freely, in carrying on a work
which rightly and properly devolves on the Sanitary Authority itself, and which
many Sanitary Authorities are now undertaking as part of the health administration
of their boroughs. Indeed, if any of these local institutions should
fail for want of sufficient pecuniary support, it is quite possible, nay, it is
almost certain, that the Local Government Board would call on the Council
to continue the work.
East Islington does not possess a Centre, but I am glad to know that an
effort is now being made by some ladies interested in work of this character
to establish a Welfare Centre there, where one is very much needed.
In issuing this Report I cannot refrain from expressing my very great
regret, and, indeed, that of the entire Staff of the Public Health Department,
at the loss we have sustained by the death of Alderman Robert Stephens Cufflin,
who for fourteen years presided over the Public Health Committee, was a
member of it for twenty-five years, and under whose guidance the Public
Health Department grew and prospered, until it became a real power for good
in the Borough. He was ever its friend and kindly critic, for while he was
never blind to its deficiencies, he was always most anxious to enlarge its sphere
of usefulness to the public, although he never advocated new departures
without first studying the proposals from their pecuniary, legal, and health
aspects. He was, therefore, a successful administrator because of these
qualities, and also because he never allowed politics, strong Conservative
though he was, or expediency to take the place of right or justice. Consequently,
when the reports of the Public Health Committee came to be
considered in the Council he was listened to attentively, while his arguments
carried great weight and generally conviction. Islington was
indeed fortunate in possessing such a guide in 1892, when the Public Health
(London) Act, 1891, came into force, and afterwards when its provisions and
the by-laws made under it were first enforced, and it suffered an equally
great misfortune when he died, the blow being all the heavier because he was
in the hey-day of his intellectual powers, which were considerable, while his
bodily strength seemed to indicate that he had years of life before him. At
the outbreak of the war he undertook most heartily many of the duties which