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54
County Council of the services. The decision of the Minister,
given on February 22nd, was in the following terms :—
" The Minister has had some difficulty in arriving at a decision
upon these representations. He is fully in accord with the principle
that in general it is desirable that the maternity and child welfare
services should be administered by the authority responsible for
the school medical service. But in the present case he finds that
the two districts will include populous urban districts in which
the maternity and child welfare service has always been provided
by the district councils, and so far as he is aware the County Council
have not previously at any time proposed that the services in those
districts should be transferred to them. Moreover, he is impressed
by the fact that the population of the new district will be in the
neighbourhood of 96,000 and will thus far exceed the population
of any of the present urban districts the councils of which have been
permitted to provide the maternity and child welfare service since
its inception.
" The Minister has therefore come to the conclusion that he
would not be justified in refusing to allow the District Council at
the outset to act as the maternity and child welfare authority for
their district, and effect will be given to this decision in the Order
which is about to be made under Section 46 of the Local Government
Act, 1929.
" The Minister is glad to learn of the desire of the County
Council to work in co-operation with the district council.
It is clear that there will be need for close co-operation if the
health of mothers and children is to be adequately safeguarded,
and he does not doubt that the County Council will do all that
lies in their power to attain this result."
Notification and Registration of Births.
1,793 notifications of live births were received during the
year.
1,048 notifications of births (including stillbirths) were received
from medical practitioners and parents, and 681 from midwives.
The total number of births registered during the year was
2,167, 1,101 male and 1,066 female. Of these 58 were illegitimate,
being a percentage of total births of 2.7.
Stillbirths.
41 male and 30 female stillbirths were registered, being a rate
per thousand population of 0.54, compared with the figure of
0.62 for the country as a whole.
Infant Mortality.
102 infants under one year of age died during the year, giving
an infant mortality rate of 47.5 compared with that of 59 for
the country as a whole, 63 for the Great Towns and 67 for London.