THE GROWING DEMAND FOR PUBLIC NURSERIES. [To Ms Entreat or
run "SPXOPPPOP:1 Sim—Inquiry shows that in most of our thickly populated districts more than half the poorer mothers go out to work either in factories, laundries, or Charing, and that, whether from the fact that thousands of the younger women are emigrating or from the rise in prices, or both, the number of working mothers is rapidly increasing. If more than half the mothers go out to work it follows that more than half the children must either be left smeared for, or in the charge of the smaller half of the mothers,
many of whom must take in from one to four or five children or more, besides their own, unless special institutions are provided to tend them ; 'and there is here a plentiful source of danger to the health of the rising generation.
In default of well-equipped nurseries under the superintendence of trained matrons and nurses, amateur nurseries kept by ignorant persons, not qualified to guard against infection and improper feeding, &c., will come, and in fact are coming, into existence ; such, for example, as that referred to by Dr. Kemp, who was a member of the deputation which was recently introduced to the President of the Local Government Board and President of the Board of Education by the Chairman of this Society to press for official registration and inspection.
There is, in short, a demand for publio nurseries created by the conditions of our times, and unless due precautions are taken to see that such nurseries are conducted on model lines and are periodically inspected, so as to ensure that efficiency shall be main- tained, the danger to the health and intelligence of the children, which must in time reflect itself upon the prosperity of our country as a whole, gives cause for grave apprehension. In the absence of statutory powers it is this duty of inspection and of affording facilities, derived from their own experience, to others who wish to open new nurseries, that the National Society of Day Nurseries endeavours to perform, besides promoting the training of probationers as nurses, who are now in increasing request, in respect of its affiliated nurseries. For everywhere nurseries are springing up, and their founders are coming to the Society for advice, and it is to assist the Society in performing this public service that it is now appealing to the public for funds, until such time as statutory powers of inspection may be given to the Education or other Department, with perhaps State contributions such as are given in other countries. There are thirty-four nurseries in London already affiliated to the Society and thirty-one elsewhere, including one in Toronto, being a total of sixty-five nurseries, and more are waiting to come in. H.R.If. Princess Christian is President of the Society, the aims of which Muriel Viscountess Helmsley has done so much to promote. Offices and Secretary : 4 Sydney Terrace, Fulham Road, S.W.—I
am, Sir, dc., EDSTItes FINERIES, M.P., Chairman.
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