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1925
31
This aspect of the subject has been dealt with fully, as it
has a bearing upon the whole question of child welfare work,
If it were true that the efforts simply resulted in saving children
who would grow up to be weedlings and inefficient, then it would
be better to scrap the whole organisation of health visiting and
begin anew. The figures given in the preceding page I think,
prove that the opposite view is the correct one, and that the object
of infant welfare work is the improvement of the conditions under
which the children are reared, and not simply the treatment of individual
cases. Consequently, not only infant life is saved, but
the children who survive are stronger and healthier. Where the
conditions were such as conduced to a high infant mortality,
for every child who died, others who survived were scarred and
maimed. It was the survivors under the unhealthy conditions
which produced a high infantile mortality who grew up as weedlings
and inefficients.
Notifications of Births Acts.
882 live births and 17 still births were notified. 909 births
were registered by the local registrar of births. Over 97 per cent.
of the births were notified last year compared with 98 per cent.
in 1924. During the past two years, there has been a considerable
improvement in the percentage of births which have been notified,
but recently there has again been a tendency to neglect this duty.
Two years ago, the Council reminded doctors and midwives of
their duty under the Notification of Births Acts, and the percentage
of births notified appreciably increased as a result.

Health Visiting.
During the year the health visitors paid visits to 715 infants
under one year of age. The total visits paid to infants under
1 year was 4280.