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(e) The suitability of the accommodation and equipment
and the efficiency of the service of the meals.
(f) The completeness of the arrangements made for ascertaining
and recording the effect of the meals on the
physical and mental condition of the children.
(g) The economical administration of the work.
On the 18th November, 1914, a letter was received
from the Board of Education making certain criticisms and
suggestions with regard to the working of the Education
(Provision of Meals) Acts, 1906 and 1914, in Willesden, and
asking for the observations of the Authority thereon. This
letter was referred to a Special Committee, and the Medical
Officer was asked to report thereon. This report appears
as Appendix J to the present report. The Board's letter
and the Medical Officer's report were still under consideration
at the end of the year.
H. MOTHER CRAFT AND MOTHER CRAFT
SCHOOLS.
Mother Craft.—The need of providing instruction on
Infant Care for the older girls in the Public Elementary
Schools and for mothers becomes more and more apparent.
A great proportion of infant mortality is due to ignorance
on the part of those whose duty it is to care for the baby.
It should also be remembered that when we say that the
infant mortality rate in Willesden during 1914 was 82,
we do not merely mean that 82 out of every 1,000 babies
born alive died before the first year, but that the same conditions
which caused their deaths have permanently marred
the health of a far greater number of living children. It is
obviously, therefore, of the utmost importance to prevent
this wholesale spoiling of lives, and the need of providing
adequate instruction on this subject of infant care is being
more and more recognised in all parts of the country.