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88
In addition to the dried milk and drags, etc., sold articles, of the
same character to the value of £218 11s. 3d. were supplied to
mothers free of cost.
Milk (Mothers and Children) Order, 1918.
The provisions of this Order were extended in January to the
Voluntary Infant Welfare Centres in the Borough, on the recommendation
of the Medical Officers in attendance at the centres.
This extension has been of great benefit to the mothers attending
those centres as will be seen by the reports of the Medical Officers.
Milk supplied free of cost to necessitous cases during the year
involved the Council in an expenditure of £566 5s. 2d.
Free supply of fresh and dried milk.
Towards the end of the year it was found that the question
of milk supply to expectant mothers, to nursing mothers, to infants,
and to young children under school age, i.e., under five years of
age, required serious consideration.
The attendances of mothers and children at the Centres
had very largely increased in number, and the demands for free
milk, or milk at reduced rates, had become very numerous, so
numerous, in fact, that at the five Centres controlled by the Council
some 3,000 pints of milk per month were given away, and at a
time when milk cost Is. per quart. In addition, some 1,400 lbs. of
" Glaxo " and of " Cow and Gate " Dried milk were sold each
month at the three Borough Council's Centres. This meant that
at the then rate of distribution and cost, the rate of expenditure on
fresh cow's milk supplied free was something like £900 per annum.
Since a Hackney Borough Council's Centre was first instituted,
it had been the custom to grant supplies of ordinary cow's milk
free of any charge in instances in which upon inquiry it appeared
that the means of a family were so small that there was difficulty
in obtaining the necessary supplies, and thus all cow's milk as such