TUBERCULOSIS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5485, 9 October 1929, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS.

ATTEMPT TO ERADICATE. PROPOSED ISSUE OF STAMPS. The following telegram was received from the Minister of Health, the Hon. A. J. Stallworthy, yesterday :— “With a view to stimulating public interest, education, and support in an anti-tuberculosis campaign throughout New Zealand, Cabinet has given its approval to trying out the Christmas seal scheme so successful in other countries. It is proposed to issue through the post offices over the Christmas season a specially designed supplementary penny stamp to be voluntarily affixed to letters, with the great objective to stamp out tuberculosis in New Zealand. “A definite feature of the scheme this year will be the raising of funds for children’s health camps. Eminent authorities agree that the foundation of health is laid in the care and education of the child from its earliest infancy, and investigations by the Health Department have revealed numbers of New Zealand children suffering from malnutrition. As the value of health camps has been established, we desire to extend them. The fight against tuberculosis is in the last analysis a philanthropic and sociological effort rather than a medical one, through the supreme importance of the application /of the principles of preventive medicine for the creation of a healthy race. “It is reported from America that during the period the seal has been in existence the death rate from tuberculosis has fallen from 198 per 100,000 population to 95, a saving of over 100,000 lives last year. The tiny pieces of paper have had an inestimable part not only in raising funds, but in carrying to millions of people the stimulus to guard against disease. “Without the generous co-operation of all editors in the Dominion the scheme here cannot be successful. I take the liberty of respectfully asking for your most generous support in our efforts to achieve the same measure of success as has' resulted in other countries.”