The Maternity Benefit under the National Insurance Act, though a valuable evidence of the interest of the State in maternity, has not provided a sufficient remedy. It was an unconditional benefit limited to insured women or the wives of insured men, and there was no guarantee that the money allotted would be utilized in supplying the medical, midwifery, or nursing assistance needed by the patient, or in relieving her from domestic duties which she is unfit to perform. It was furthermore, inadequate for these purposes. We should not think of handing over to each individual householder an annual sum of money, advising him to expend it on a supply of books or in the education of his children. It is more economical and more effective to provide free libraries and public elementary schools without payment of fees. Is not similar action important in connection with child-bearing, on which the continuity of family life and civilization depends? That this is so is recognized in the steps towards the desired end taken in recent years by the Local Government Board jointly with local authorities. Let me enumerate some of these. The Central Authority have undertaken to pay one-half of approved expenditure incurred locally on the following agencies: (_a_) The salaries and expenses of inspectors of midwives; (_b_) The salaries and expenses of health visitors and nurses engaged in maternity and child welfare work; (_c_) The provision of a midwife for necessitous women in confinement and for areas which are insufficiently supplied with this service; (_d_) The provision, for necessitous women, of a doctor for illness connected with pregnancy and for aid during the period of confinement for mother and child; (_e_) The expenses of a Centre, i.e., an institution providing any or all of the following activities: Medical supervision and service for expectant and nursing mothers, and for children under five years of age, and medical treatment at the Centre for cases needing it; (_f_) Arrangements for instruction in the general hygiene of maternity and childhood; (_g_) Hospital treatment provided or contracted for by local authorities for complicated cases of confinement or complications arising after parturition, or for cases in which a woman to be confined suffers from illness or deformity, or for cases of women who, in the opinion of the Medical Officer of Health cannot with safety be confined in their homes or such other provision for securing proper conditions for the confinement of necessitous women as may be approved by the Medical Officer of Health; (_h_) Hospital treatment provided or contracted for by local authorities for children under five years of age found to need in-patient treatment;