View report page

14
As regards the maternity and child welfare expenditure,
since the last percentage grant from the Ministry of Health was
received in the financial year 1929-30 and amounted to £5,148,
and since an equal amount must be contained in the block grant,
the actual amount from the rate for the current financial year is
not £11,689, but £6,541. In other words the 1929-30 figure of
£5,148 should be compared against £6,541 for 1931-32, not against
£11,689, the comparison recently given in Council in reply to an
enquiry, and reported in the local Press on February 27th, 1931.
On the other hand the new scheme for the prevention of maternal
mortality, which amounts during a full financial year to £1,725,
will fall directly on the rate, and contribution will not be received
until the block grant is reconsidered by the Ministry of Health.
Prior to 1918 the expenditure on maternity and child welfare
was nominal. There was, indeed, no expenditure whatever in
pre-war years. In fact, the Maternity and Child Welfare Act,
1918, may be considered the foundation of the present service,
though a certain amount of work was done under the Notification
of Births Act. In 1918 the infantile death rate was 111, in 1929
it had fallen to 57 and in 1930 to 49 per 1,000 births. If the rate
of crippling to deaths is three to one, as stated in a Governmental
Enquiry Report on Infantile Mortality, there must have resulted
a considerable saving in that direction also. It is also an undeniable
fact that a high infantile mortality rate carries with it a high
mortality rate during the 1 to 5-year age period.
It is unhappily true that only since Government financial
assistance has been forthcoming were appreciable steps taken to
deal with many of the public health needs that are now receiving
attention. The Tuberculosis Regulations of 1912 gave wide powers
to Local Authorities, but it was several years later and after a
scheme of Government contribution had been arranged, that the
Tuberculosis Dispensaries were established. Prior to the system
of Government contributions to housing, nothing of any importance
was contemplated as regards large areas of worn-out housing in
this Borough. A very great deal was done as regards nuisances
and the closing of houses, but it can fairly be said that the Housing
of the Working Classes Acts, and the Housing and Town Planning
Act, 1909, in no way stimulated Local Authorities to deal with
overcrowding and slum clearance on an adequate scale; the
difficulties were too enormous. For instance, Dr. King Warry
"Represented" Duncan Square as an Unhealthy Area in 1900 and
his "Representation" was apparently simply ignored. Recent
Housing Acts, however, endeavoured to remove the difficulties of
the Local Authorities from the financial aspect and this has resulted
in the preparation of housing and clearance schemes. The principle
of direct Government contribution, according to work done, has