THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1923. NEW ZEALANDERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4536, 7 March 1923, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto : Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1923. NEW ZEALANDERS.

Like a great number of other doctors, Dr. E. H. Wilkins, Director of School Hygiene, is not a believer in the consumption of too much meat. He considers that New Zealanders have become meat. eaters largely through force of habit. People at Home, and Continental people, did not eat so much meat, and he considered that they are better for it. No one unversed in medical practice would care to question the correctness of the latter assertion, bu't there will undoubtedly be many who will feel an inclination to disagree with the statement, at least to some extenlt. There is, in fact, only one convincing way in which the physical superiority of the Home and Continental people over the New Zealander could be judged, namely, by a comparison of statistics relating to (a) the death rate, and (be) prevalence of disease. Too much of anything is bad. Everyone kndws that, even if they abuse it. But climatic conditions vary in different countries, and where meat is neces; sary in one it is unnecessary in another. No one, for instance, would think of eating a large meal of meat in India. Then, again, no one in New Zealand would think of living-mainly on rice—tlie stable food of many countries. Every normal man knows that there should be moderation in all tilings. At the same time, until evidence is produced to prove any inferiority of the New Zealander in comparison with others as a result of our method of living it is doubtful whether a change is warranted. Health is not so much a question of the nature of the food we eat as Hie quantity in relation 'to the occupation we follow. Bread and butter and an apple may suit a clerk, but the navvy is not yet born who can work and thrive on .such diet., A liberal diet of fruit is, of course, essential, but at those times when tipples rise: to as much as lOd a pound—because we export, and then import for out consumption—many have to go without. One well-known doctor, formerly of Harley Street, once said ; “As soon as we worry about our food and how we eat it wc lose health.” There is probably more useful advice in that Than in all. the assumptions regarding- this and that being harmful. Man’s greatest enemy is himself.