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89
had been supplied free; no attempt had been made to regulate
prices according to weekly incomes and the size of families. It was
felt that the time had arrived when some effort should be made
to establish a scheme by which reduced prices could be fixed in
some proportion to the weekly income per head of the family,
and the giving of milk free of cost could be confined strictly to
such cases as were really necessitous.
With regard to the sale of " Glaxo," etc., at cost price, it was
thought that some sliding scale should be adopted, and mothers
attending the Centres should not consider that they thereby acquire
a right to obtain goods at a reduced rate of free of cost, but all
should be required to pay according to their means ; otherwise
the Council was entering an unfair competition with ordinary
tradesmen, and attendances might be made not so much in the
interests of the children as in the interest of the parents' pockets.
The Health Visitors endeavour to ascertain, as far as they
can, what is the weekly income, the number in the family, the
number of children under school age, the rent, and other weekly
payments, such as insurance, etc., in each case ; but, even if the
mothers, whom they interview, be perfectly honest and truthful,
misleading, or incomplete, information may be received; for
frequently motheis do not know the wages earned by their husbands,
and give as income merely the sum which their husbands allow
them for housekeeping purposes. Hence, it was feared, the Health
Visitors were often misinformed, sometimes undesignedly, sometimes,
probably, deliberately; and there can be little doubt that in
many instances people who can afford, and who ought to be able
to bring up their children without help, obtain necessaries through
the Centres at reduced cost, or even free of cost. Moreover, there
is no means of insuring that supplies obtained are strictly reserved
for use by those for whom they are intended. In a family in
which there are several children under school-age, a baby, and
an expectant or nursing mother, when a suitable allowance of