PHYSICAL WELFARE OF NATION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 45, 16 November 1937, Page 3

PHYSICAL WELFARE OF NATION

-PreBS Association.)

Toll of Disease in Past Five Years

MINISTER'S APPEAL

(By Telegraph—

WELLINGTON, Last Night. : L In the House to-night the Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon. W. E. Parry), moving the second reading of the Physical Welfare and Recreation Bill, referred to the importance of health .to the community to-day. He took three diseases and quoted the deaths which occurred from tliem throughout the Dominion in the last five years: — From cancer, 1472 people died in 1932 and 1762 in 193(6, the total deaths for five years being 8513. Maori's deaths ironi the same causes were: 1932 25 and 1936 45, a total of 162 in five years. Tuberculosis deaths were: 1932 615, and 1936 680; Maoris, 1932 291, and 1936 329. Heart diseases: 1932 2935, and 1936 3646; Maoris, 1932 ^73, and 1936 103. The total deaths for the last five years from all causes were £8,SS5. He thanked the sporting organisations, the Press and departmental ofiicials for the support and assistanee they had given in the preparation and support of the Bill, and he contended that one of the . best legacies we could hand down to future generations was a healthy physlque. 'The foundation for physical fitness should be .laid in the schools, but the physical fitness of the race went further back than that it rested on the food we ate and contents of the soil in which it was grown. He stated that tne movement projected in the Bill was going to cost money, but that money would be saved in money spent on building hospitals to nurse people when they became ill, Physical well-being, he said, meant mental well-being and the one should not be developed at the expense of the other. Rather they should .both be developed side 'by side. Mr. Parry pleaded with sections of the community not to be intolerant of that particular type of sport adopted by some other section. He stated that under the Bill^the term local bodies had been given widest possible applica,tion and included harbour boards, domain boards, etc. With regard to the proposed council, he stressed the fact that members of that body would not be representative of. any particular sport in which they might be personally interested. Sports bodies themselves realised the necessity for individual members of the council not representing any particular sport or group of sports. In answer to a question by a member of the Opposition, Mr. Parry said that grants to sports organisations would be made on the basis of the efforts they themselves had made^ He stressed the fact that country districts would also have consideration because the Government recognised that these districts had been neglected in ' regard to assistanee for recreation facilities in the past. He stated he could not at present give any indication of the total amount whicli would be available for grants to differe'nt organisations. Mr J. Hargest (Nat., Awarua), said the Opposition would very cordially support tHfe objective underlyirg the Bill — namely, th© making of young people fit — and he hoped that when Opposition members subjected the mea sure to searching investigations, the Minister would not take that as hostile criticism. He thought the Minister should. confine himself to the promotion of physical training only, and jeave the control of games such as football and hoekey and other games to the organisations which were already resT>onsible for them. v Mr. Parry: The Bill does not aim at the. control of games at all. Mr. Hargest proceeded to compare the measure with the English Bill. The debate was interrupted by the adjournment at 10.30 when the House roso.