The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1926. CHILDREN’S HEALTH.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1926. CHILDREN’S HEALTH.

Most people in cites look on the country child as the healthiest and sturdiest of’our youthful population, so that it would come as rather a surprise when an Auckland Education Board’s medical officer stated recently that 20 per cent, of the children in country districts in the north are not nourished properly. His opinion is that this state of affairs is due to ignorance of food values rather than to poverty. An investigation is to lie carried out by medical officers up north, and this subject might also with advantage be taken up by the British Medical Association at its lorthcom ins' (inference. Very probably the hard life of most children in the bacl.blo.ks has something to do with this question of malnutrition. It is interesting to read what the Health Department has to say on the subject in its latest* report: “There is no doubt that in freedom from defect in physique New Zealand children compare favourably with those of other countries, nevertheless nutrition is unsatisfactory in 9 per cent. . .

It is popularly assumed that country children have of necessity advantages over town children. It is true that in a well-to-do farming district good nutrition and physical development are the rule, but the struggle of life in the bnekblocks often tolls hardly on the children. Houses are cramped and inconvenient ; food wrongly balanced, monotonous and hastily prepared ; rest is inadequate and work often excessive. Tfiere is probably no country in

the world to-day where the fundamentals of healthy growth—fresh air, sunlight, food of the right type arid amount, adequate sleep and rest and wholesome exercise are more readily obtainable than lit New Zealand.” Apparently, according to the Health Department nine out of every hundred, and to the Auckland Education Board’s medico, twenty out of every hundred children are doing credit to thencountry. It is difficult to understand, hut there are the facts, showing that despite the work of the Blanket Society and medical inspection of schools etc., conditions exist which should not, and which should be eliminated as quickly as possible. At the same time, while it is to he deplored that the. children of the backblocks in the North Island are not as robust as could he desired, we hardly think the position is as had in the South Island. On the Coast, in particular, it seems to bo the rule that country children enjoy good health, and are maturing well. The difference in the climate may ho a. factor, but the advantage seems to be certainly with the South Island. Very little can he said in reproach against the health of the children in Westland, while their physical development is certainly jnofc neglected. At the same time there should he am slackness in the endeavour to maintain the health of the children at the highest standard.